'•'•^*, Im THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE PRESENTED BY ¥ts, James R. Moore in memory of Mar;^'" Corning lilnsloYr Black tv-^' ..^n:> dI' ? / HERODOTUS, TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK, WITH NOTES. BY THE REV. WILLIAM BELOE. IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. IL TyE FOURTH EDITIO N. LONDON: PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON ; J. CUTHELL ; J. NUNN ; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN ; J. RICHARD- SON ; BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY ; LACKINGTON AND CO.; J. MAWMAN ; G. AND W. B. WHITTAKER; W. COLLINGWOOD ; W. WOOD ; OGLE, DUNCAN, AND CO. ; E. EDWARDS ; ROD- WELL AND MARTIN ; SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL ; R. SAUNDERS ; W. SHELDON ; W. MASON ; AND J. PARKER, AND J. VINCENT, OXFORD. 182L rrii.ie.l bv S I'te R REN ILKY. Pnr>ft-sliei I. S.ilisliiiry-M)ii.irf. Uoiuloii . •*!' C> fi^M^^y^^^^"^^ °P CALIFORNIA ^/ rov /nnToyvK-tov o>pa, the very expression of Anacreon. The passage from Xenophon is not more decisive. — Lurcher. Upon this subject we have the following curious note in the Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis : — Of the dials of tlie an- cients we may form some idea from the following example : U EUTERPE. ex. Except Sesostris, no monarch of ^gypt was ever master of Ethiopia. This prince placed as a monument'-' some marble statues before the temple of Vulcan * ; two of these were thirty Pallaclius Uutilius, who lived about the fifth century, and who has left us a treatise on agriculture, has put at the end of every month a table, in which one sees the correspondence of the divisions of the day to the difterent lengths of the shadow of the gnomon. It must be observed, in the first place, that this correspondence is the same in the months equally distant from the solstice, January and December, February and November, &c. Secondly, that the length of the shadow is the same for the hours equally distant from the mid-day point. The following is the table for January : Hours. Feet. J. and XI. 29 II. and X. ----- IC) HI. and IX. - - - - - 1-^ IV. and VIII. - - - - - 12 . V. and VII. - - - - - 10 VI. ----- 9 This dial seems to have been adapted for the climate of Rome. Similar dials were constructed for the climate of Athens. 192 Placed as a monument.'] — Larcher, in his version, adds in this place, " to commemorate the danger he had escaped." The te.xt will not justify this version, though the learned Frenchman's opinion, that this is the implied meaning, rests on the positive assertion of Dindorus Siculus, who, relating the fact of the statues circumstantially, adds that they were erected by Sesostris in gratitude to ^'ulcan, by whose interpo- sition he escaped the treachery of his brother. — T. * One of the trophies brought by our victorious army from ^gvpt, is the fist of a colossean statue. It was found by the French in the ruins of Memphis, and very possibly belonged to a slalue of "\'ulcan. EUTERPE. 15 cubits in height, and represented him and his queen ; four others, of twenty cubits each, re- presented his four children. A long time after- wards, Darius king of Persia was desirous of placing before these a statue of himself'-'"', but the high priest of Vulcan violently opposed it, urging that the actions of Darius were far less splendid than tliose of the J^gyptian Sesostris. This latter prince had vanquished as many na- tions as Darius, and had also subdued the Scy- thians, who had never yielded to the arms of Darius. Tlierefore, says he, it can never be just to place before the statues of Sesostris, the figure of a prince, whose exploits have not been equally illustrious. They told me that Darius forgave this remonstrance ^^^. ^^^ A statue of himself^ — After a series of ages, when ^gypt was reduced under the power of Persia, Darius, the father of Xerxes, was desirous of placing an image of himself at IVIemphis, before the statue of Sesostris. This was stre- nuously opposed by the chief priest, in an assembly of his order, who asserted that the acts of Darius had not yet sur- passed those of Sesostris. The king did not take this free- dom amiss, but was rather pleased with it; saying, that if he lived as long as Sesostris, he would endeavour to equal him. — Diodonis Siciilus. J94 Forgave this remonstrance.] — It does not however ap- pear from hence that Darius was ever in ^gypt. Tie re- sistance of the chief priest might probably be told him, and he might forgive it. It appears by a passage in Aristotle, that Darius attacked and conquered this country ; if so, the priest of ^'ulcan might personally oppose Darius. The au- IG E U T E II r E. CXI. On the death of Sesostris, his son Phe- ron"^ as the priests mformcd me, succeeded to liis throne. This prince undertook no militarf- expedition ; but by the action I am going to relate, he lost the use of his eyes : — When the Nile was at its extreme height of eighteen cubits, and had overflowed the fields, a sudden wind arose, which made the waters impetuously swell. At this juncture the prince hurled a javelin into the vortex of the stream : he was in a moment deprived of sight, and continued blind for the space of ten years ; in the eleventh, an oracle was communicated to him from Butos, intimating that the period of his punishment was expired, and that he should recover his sight, by washing his eyes with the urine of a woman, who had never known any man but her husband, Pheron first made the experiment with the urine of his own wife, and when this did not succeed, he ap- plied that of other women indiscriminately. Plav- ing at length recovered his sight, he assembled all the women, except her whose mine had rc- thorily of Aiistolle is of no weight, compared with that of our historian ; and probably, in that writer, instead of Darius, we should read Xerxes. — Lurcher. If Darius llystaspes be intended, this prince certainly was in iT,gypt, in tlie army of Cambyses, but I believe not whilst a king. 195 P/irro)!.] — This prince is supposed to be the first -'T-gyp- tian Pharaoh ; but tliis must be erroneous, for the Israelites were oppressed by Pharaoh one hundred and seventy years before tlii^^ reimn. EUTERPE. IT moved his calamity, in a city wliicli is to this clay called Erythrebolos ^^ ; all these, with the town itself, he destroyed by fire, but he married the female who had deserved his gratitude. On his recovery he sent magnificent presents to all the more celebrated temples ; to that of the Sun he sent two obelisks, too remarkable to be un- noticed ; each was formed of one solid stone, one hundred cubits high, and eight broad. CXII. The successor of Pheron, as the same priests informed me, w^as a citizen of Memphis, whose name in the Greek tongue was Proteus '"'. i9<5 Eri/tlirebolos.] — Diodorus Siculus calls this place He- liopolis ; and says that the woman, through whose means Pheron was cured of his blindness, was the wife of a gar- dener. This certainly proves that great corruption of manners prevailed at this time in -^gypt, and Larcher judiciously refers, at this passage, to the precaution taken by Abraham on entering this country. See Genesis, c. xii. v. 11. The profligacy also of the wife of Potiphar towards Joseph, aflbrds a similar testimony. — T. iy7 Profei/s.]— Proteus was an ^Egyptian title of the deity, under which he was worshipped, both in the Pharos and at Memphis. He was the same as Osiris and Canopus, and particularly the god of mariners, who confined his depart- ment to the sea. From hence I think we may unravel the mystery about the pilot of INIenelaus, who is said to have been named Canopus, and to have given name to the prm- cipal sea-port in .^gypt. — Bryant. Vol. II. C Scylax 18 E U T E U P E. His shrine is still to be seen at Memphis ; it is situated to the south of the temple of Vulcan, and is very magnificently decorated. The Phoe- nicians of Tyre dwell in its vicinity, and indeed the whole of the place, is denominated the Ty- rian camp. In this spot, consecrated to Proteus, there is also a small temple, dedicated to Venus the Stranger''-^: this Venus I conjecture is no Scylax speaks of Canopus as if he seriously thought the island was denominated from the pilot of Menelaus. No antique figure has yet been met with of Proteus : upon this circumstance Mr. Spence remarks, that his character was far more manageable for poets, than for sculptors or painters. The former might very well describe all the va- riety of shapes that he could put on, and point out the transition from one to ihe other, but the artists must have been content to shew him either in his own natural shape, or in some one alone of all his various forms. Of this deity, the best description is given in the Georgics of Virgil. — T. It is remarkable, that if we were to write the ^Egyptian name of Proteus, as given by the Greeks, in Phoenician cha- racters, we should make use of the same letters we pro- nounce Pharao; the final o in the Hebrew is an //, which at the end of words frequently becomes t. — Volney. ^9^ Venus the Stranger.] — It is doubtless this Venus to whom Horace alludes in the following verses : Oh qua? beatam diva tenes Cyprum, et Rlemphim carentem Sithouia nive Regina. Strabo also speaks of this temple, and tells us that some be- lieved it dedicated to the Moon] — T. The E U T E R P Er 19 other than Helen, the daughter of Tyndaris, be- cause she, I was told, resided for some time at the court of Proteus, and because this building is dedicated to Venus the Stranger; no other temple of Venus is distinguished by this appel- lation. CXIII. To my enquiries on the subject ^^ of Helen, these priests answered as follows : Paris having carried off Helen from Sparta, was re- turning home, but meeting with contrary winds in the iEgean, he was driven into the Egyptian The ancients had very little scruple or delicacy in building temples to their favourite beauties, simply adding Venus to their names. Thus in iEgypt there was a temple at Alexandria to Venus Belestria, Belestria being the name of a slave of great beauty, the favourite of an Egyptian prince. Venus Arsinoe was somewhat similar. — T. ^^9 Inquiries on the subject.] — Upon no subject, ancient or modern, have writers been more divided, than about the precise period of the Trojan war. Larcher, after discussing this matter very fully, in his Essay on Chronology, is of opi- nion, and his arguments appear to me at least, satisfactory, that it took place 1263 years before the vulgar aera. — T. Since the publication of the first edition of this work, our countryman, Bryant, has produced a learned and elaborate work, to prove that the Trojan war never took place. This has of course led to a number of profound and critical investigations on the subject, in which the weight of argu- ment and evidence appears to be against Bryant. I rather wonder that Larcher has taken no notice of Bryant's work. c- 2 20 E U T E R P E. sea. As the winds continued unfavourable, he proceeded to _^gypt, and was driven to the Ca- nopian mouth of the Nile, and to Tarichea : in this place was a temple of Hercules, which still remains ; if any slave fled to this for refuge, and in testimony of his consecrating himself to the service of the god, submitted to be marked with certain sacred characters, no one was suflfered to molest him. This custom has been strictly ob- served, from its first institution to the present period. The servants of Paris, aware of the pri- vileges of this temple, fled thither from their mas- ter, and with the view of injuring Paris, became the suppliants of the divinity. They published many accusations against their master, disclosing the whole affair of Helen, and the wrong done to INIenelaus : this they did, not only in the pre- sence of the priests, but also before Thonis "'^\ the governor of the district. ^'^^ T/ionix.] — Some writers pretend that Thonis was prince of the Canopian mouth of the Nile, and that he was the inventor of medicine in iEgypt. Before he saw Helen, he treated Menelaus with great respect ; when he had seen her, he made his court to her, and even endeavoured to violate her person : Menelaus on hearing this put him to death. The city of Thonis, and Thoth, the iirst -Egyptian month, take their names from him. This narrative seems less probable than that of Hero- dotus : Theth, or the Mercury of the ^Egyptians, was much more ancient. — Lanhcr. EUTERPE. n CXIV. Thonis instantly dispatched a messen- ger to Memphis, with orders to say thus to Pro- teus : " There is arrived here a Trojan, who has perpetrated an atrocious crime in Greece; he has seduced the wife of his host, and has carried her away, with a great quantity of treasure ; ad- verse winds have forced him hither ; shall I suffer him to depart without molestation, or shall I seize his person and property?" The answer which Proteus sent was thus conceived : " Who- ever that man is, who has violated the rights of hospitality, seize and bring him before me, that I may examine liim." CXV. Thonis upon this seized Paris, and de- taining his vessels, instantly sent him to Proteus, with Helen '°^ and all his wealth : on their arrival, Proteus enquired of Paris who he was, and whence he came : Paris faithfully related the name of his family and country, and from whence he last set sail. But when Proteus proceeded to make en- quiries concerning Helen, and how he obtained possession of her person, Paris hesitated in his 2^^ This incident of the detention of Helen by Proteus, is the argument of one of the tragedies of Euripides. The poet supposes that Helen never was at Troy, but that Paris carried thither a cloud in her form : — On the death of Proteus, his son Theaclymenus prepared to make Helen his wife ; at this juncture INIenelaus was driven on the coast, saw Helen again, and with her concerted and accomplished their return to Greece. — T. Hil E U T E R P E. answers ; his slaves who had deserted him, ex- plained and proved the particulars of his guilt ; in consequence of which, Proteus made this de- termination : " If I did not esteem it a very heinous crime to put any stranger to death, whom unfavourable windis have driven to my coast, I would assuredly, thou most abandoned man, avenge that Greek whose hospitality thou hast treacherously violated. Thou hast not only seduced his wife, but, having violently taken her away, still criminally detainest her; and, as if this were not enough, thou hast robbed and plundered him ! But as I can by no means pre- vail upon myself to put a stranger to death, I shall suffer you to depart ; the woman and your wealth I shall detain, till the Greek himself thinks proper to demand her. — Do you and your com- panions depart within three days from my coasts, or expect to be treated as enemies." CX"\^I. Thus, according to the narrative of the priests, did Helen come to the court of Pro- teus. I conceive that this circumstance could not be unknown to Homer ; but as he thought it less ornamental to his poem, he forbore to use it. That he actually did know it, is evident from that part of the Iliad, where he describes the voyage of Paris ; this evidence he has no where retracted. He informs us, that Paris, after va- rious wanderings, at length arrived at Sidon, in EUTERPE. n Phoenicia ; it is in the Bravery of Diomed ^°" ; the passage is this : There lay the vestures of no vulgar art, Sidonian maids embroider'd every part ; AVhen from soft Sidon youthful Paris bore, AVith Helen touching on the Tyrian shore. II. vi. 390. He again introduces this subject in the Odyssey : These drugs, so friendly to the joys of life. Bright Helen learn'd from Thone's imperial wife : Who sway'd the sceptre where prolific Nile With various simples clothes the fatten'd soil. With vtrholesome herbage niix'd, the direful bane Of vegetable venom taints the plain. Od. iv. 315. *<** Bravery of Diomed.] — The different parts of Homer's poems were known anciently by names taken from the sub- jects treated in them : — Thus the fifth book of the Iliad was called the Bravery of Diomed; and in like manner the eleventh the Bravery of Agamemnon ; the tenth the Night-watch, or the Death of Dolon, S^c. ; all of which titles are prefixed to the respective books in Clarke's and other editions from Eu- stathius : — See also iElian, Var. Hist. Book xiii. c. 14. This division was more ancient than that into books, and there- fore does not always coincide with it : thus the second Iliad has two names, the Dream or the Trial, and the Catalogue; whereas four or five books of the Odyssey are supposed to be comprized under the name of the Story of Alcinous. Valcnaer erroneously supposed this to be a later division of the grammarians, and therefore endeavoured to explain away the expression of Herodotus, which evidently refers to it. — T. S4 EUTERPE. INIcnelaus also says thus to Telemaclius : I^oiig on til' .Egyptian coast by calms confin'd, Hcav'n to my fleet refused a prosp'rous ^vind : No vows had we prefcrr'd, nor victim slain, For this the gods each favouring gale restrain. Od. iv. 473. In these passages, Homer confesses himself ac- quainted with the voyage of Paris to /Egypt ; for Syria borders upon /Egypt, and the Phoenicians, to whom Sidon belongs, inhabit part of Syria. CXVII. The last passage of these, confirms sufficiently the argument, which may be deduced from the former, that the Cyprian verses ^'" were "°3 Cyprian versesi] — On the. subject of these verses the following sentence occurs in Atheneeus : " The person who composed the Cyprian verses, whether he was some Cyprian or Stasinus, or by whatever name he chooses to be distinguished," kc. From which it appears, that Athenaeus had no idea of their being written by Homer. But we are told by iElian, in his Various History, that Homer certainly did compose these verses, and gave them as a marriage portion with his daughter. — See ^lian. Book ix. chap. 15, in the note to which, this subject is amply dis- cussed.— T. The subject of this poem was the Trojan war, after the birth of Helen. A'enus caused this princess to be born, that she might be able to promise Paris an accomplished beauty ; to this Jupiter, by the advice of Momus, hud consented, in order to destroy the human race again by the war of Troy, which was to take place on her account. As the author of this poem refers all the events of this war to Venus, goddess of Cyprus, the work was called by her name. " It is evi- dent," savs M. Larcher in continuation, •' that Herodotus would have told the name of th« author, had he known it." EUTERPE. S5 never written bv Homer. These relate that Paris, in company with Helen, assisted by a favourable wind and sea, passed in three days from Sparta to Troy ; on the contrary, it is asserted in the Iliad, that Paris, after carrying away Helen, wandered about to various places. But enough of Homer and the Cyprian verses. CXVIH. On my desiring to know of the same priests whether what the Greeks affirm concern- ing Troy, was true or false, they told me the following particulars, which they assured me they received from Menelaus himself After the loss of Helen, the Greeks assembled in great numbers at Teucris, to assist INIenelaus ; they disem- barked and encamped : they then dispatched ambassadors to Troy, whom IMenelaus himself accompanied. On their arrival, they made a formal demand of Helen, and of the wealth which Paris had at the same time clandestinely taken, as well as general satisfaction for the injury. The Trojans then and afterwards uni- formly persisted in declaring, that they had among them, neither the person nor the wealth of Helen, but that both were in ^gypt ; and they thought it hard that they should be made responsible for what Proteus king of ^gypt certainly possessed. The Greeks, believing them- selves deluded, laid siege to Troy, and perse- vered till they took it. But when Helen was not 26 E U T E R P E. to be found in the captured town, and the same assertions concerning her were continued, they at Icngtli obtained credit, and ISIenelaus himself was dispatched to Proteus. CXIX. As soon as he arrived in /Egypt he proceeded up the Nile to Memphis. On his re- lating the object of his journey, he was honourably entertained; Helen, who had been treated with respect, was restored to him, and with her, all his treasures. Inattentive to these acts of kind- ness, Menelaus perpetrated a great enormity against the -Egyptians : the winds preventing his departure, he took two children '^'' of the people •''^■^ Two children.] — This was doubtless to appease the winds. This kind of sacrifice was frequent in Greece, but detestable in yEgypt. Sanguine placastis ventos et virgine caesd. — Virgil. See Book vii. chap, ipi- — Larcher. In the early times of all religions, when nations were yet barbarous and savage, there was ever an aptness or tendency towards the dark part of superstition, which among many other horrors produced that of human sacrifice. — Lord Shaftesbury. Lord S. might, and would, if he had been honest, have excepted the Jewish religion. That the custom of human sacrifice, alike cruel and absurd, gives way but very slowly to the voice of nature and of reason, is evident from its having been practised at so late a period by the enlightened people of (ireece. Porphyry also informs us, that even in his time, who lived 233 years after the Christian a^ra, human sacrifices were common in Arcadia and at Carthage. — T. E U T E R r E. ^7 of tlie country, and with great barbarity offered them in sacrifice. As soon as the circumstance was known, universal indignation was excited against him, and he was pursued ; but he fled by sea into Africa, and the ^Egyptians could trace him no farther. Of the above facts, some they knew, as having happened among themselves, and others were the result of much diligent enquiry. CXX. This intelligence concerning Helen, I received from the ^Egyptian priests, to which I am inclined to add, as my opinion, that if Helen had been actually in Troy, they would certainly have restored her to the Greeks, with or without the consent of Paris. Priam and his connections could never have been so infatuated, as to en- danger the preservation of themselves and their children, merely that Paris might enjoy Helen ; but even if such had been their determination at first, still after having lost, in their different con- tests with the Greeks, many of their countrymen, and among these, if the poets may be believed, several of their king's own sons, I cannot imagine but that Priam, even if he had married her himself, would have restored Helen, if no other means had existed of averting these calamities. We may add to this, that Paris was not the im- mediate heir to the crown, for Hector was his superior both in age and valour : Paris, therefore, could not have possessed any remarkable influ- 28 EUTERPE. eiice in the state, neither would Hector have countenanced the misconduct of his brother, from which lie himself, and the rest of his countrymen, had experienced so many and such great cala- mities. But the restoration of Helen was not in their power, and the Greeks placed no depen- dence on their assertions, which were indisputably true; but all this, with the subsequent destruction of Troy, might be ordained by Providence, to instruct mankind that the gods proportioned punishments to crimes, CXXI. The same instructors farther told mc, that Proteus was succeeded by Rhampsinitus'"'^ : he built the west entrance of the temple of Vul- can; in the same situation he also erected two statues, twenty-five cubits in height. That which fiices the north the ^Egyptians call Summer, the one to the south, Winter : this latter is treated with no manner of respect, but they worship the former, and make offerings before it. This prince possessed such abundance of wealth, that far from surpassing^ none of his successors ever equalled him in afRucncc. For the security of his riclies, he constructed a stone edifice, con- ^"^ Rliampsinitus.] — Diodorus Siculus calls him Rlicmphis. He greatly oppressed his subjects by his avarice and ex- tortions : he amassed in gold and silver four hundred thousand talents ; a most incredible sum. — Lurcher. E U T E R P E. S9 nected with his palace by a walL The man whom he employed "°*', with a dishonest view, so artfully disposed one of the stones, that two or even one person might remove it from its place. In this building, when completed, the king deposited his treasures. Some time afterwards, the artist found his end approaching ; and having two sons, he called them both before him, and informed them in what manner, with a view to their future emolument and prosperity, he had built the king's treasury. He then explained the particular circumstance and situation of the stone, gave them minutely its dimensions, by observance of which, they might become the managers of the king's riches. On the death of the father, the sons were not long before they availed themselves of their secret. Under the advantage of the night, they visited the building, discovered and removed the stone, and carried away with them a large sum of money. As soon as the king entered the apartment, he saw the vessels which contained his money materially diminished : he was astonished beyond measure, for as the seals were unbroken, and every entrance properly se- cured, he could not possibly direct his suspicion against any one. This was several times re- -^ The man ■whom he ernploycdi] — Pausanias relates a similar fable of Trophonius, whose cave became so famous. — Larcher. so E U T E 11 P E. peatcd ; the thieves continued their visits, and the king as regularly saw his money decrease. To effect a discovery, he ordered some traps to be placed round the vessels which contained his riches. The robbers came as before ; one of them proceeding as usual directly to the vessels, was^ caught in the snare: as soon as he was sensible of his situation, he called his brother, and acquainted him with it; he withal intreated him to cut off his head without a moment's delay, as the only means of preventing his own detection and consequent loss of life ; he approved and obeyed his advice, and replacing properly the stone, he returned home with the head of his bro- ther. As soon as it was light, the king entered the apartment, and seeing the body secured in the snare without a head, the building in no part disturbed, nor the smallest appearance of any one having been there, he was more astonished than ever. In this perplexity he commanded the body to be hanged from the wall, and having stationed guards on the spot, he directed them to seize and bring before him whoever should discover any symptoms of compassion or sorrow at sidit of the deceased. The mother being much exasperated at this exposure of her son, threatened the surviving brother, that if he did not contrive and execute some means of removing the body, she would immediately go to the king, and disclose all the circumstances of EUTERPE. 31 the robbery. The young man in vain endea- voured to alter the woman's determination; he therefore put in practice the following expe- dient : — He got together some asses, which he loaded with flasks of wine ; he then drove them near the place where the guards were stationed to watch the body of his brother ; as soon as he approached, he secretly removed the pegs from the mouths of two or three of the skins, and when he saw the wine running about, he began to beat his head, and to cry out vehemently, with much pretended confusion and distress. The soldiers, perceiving the accident, instantly ran with vessels, and such wine as they \tere able to catch they considered as so much gain to themselves. At first, with great apparent anger, he reproached and abused them, but he gradually listened to their endeavours to console and pacify him: he then proceeded at leisure to turn his asses out of the road, and to secure his flasks. He soon entered into conversation with the guards, and affecting to be pleased with the drollery of one of them, he gave them a flask of wine; they accordingly set down to drink, and insisted upon his bearing them company: he complied with their solicitations, and a second flask was presently the effect of their civility to him. The wine had soon its effect, the guards became exceedingly drunk, and fell fast asleep : under the advantage of the night, the young man 32 E U T I^: R P E. took down the body of his brother, and in deri- sion shaved* the right cheeks of the guards ; lie placed the body on one of the asses, and re- turned home, having thus satisfied his mother. When the king heard of what had happened, he was enraged beyond measure ; but still deter- mined on the detection of the criminal, he con- * This, as Larcher observes, was, throughout the East, considered as the greatest mark of ignominy and contempt that could possibly be imposed upon a man. Hanun, king of the Ammonites, shaved the messengers of David, by way of contempt, and sent them away. See 2 Sam. c. x. v. 4, 5. Wherefore Ilanun took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away. When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them, be- cause the men were greatly ashamed : and the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return. In this place Larcher makes a false reference, namely, to the second Book of Kings, instead of the second Book of Samuel. See also 1 Chronicles, c. xix. v. 4. See also a very strong parabolical expression in Isaiah, c. vii. V. 20. " In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet, and it shall also consume the beard." Consult Bishop Lowth on this passage. The expression denotes the utter devastation of the country from one end to the other, and the plundering of the people from the highest to the lowest. To pluck a man's beard in the East is the highest mark of insult which can be shewn, " I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to iheiu lliat [lUicked off the hair." Isaiah, c. I. v. 6. EUTERPE. 83 trived this, which to mc seems n most impro- bable ''^' part of the story : — He commanded his daughter to prostitute her person indiscrimi- nately to every comer, npon condition that, before enjoyment, each should tell her the most artful as well as the most wicked thing he had ever done; if any one should disclose the cir- cumstance of which he wished to be informed, she was to seize him, and prevent his escape. The daughter obeyed the injunction of her father ; the thief, knowing v\hat was intended, prepared still farther to disappoint and deceive the king. He cut off the arm near the shoulder from his brother's recently dead body, and, concealing it under his cloak, he visited the king's daughter : when he was asked the same question as the rest, A fine beard is still held in great veneration in all Eastern countries, and inferiors sometimes kiss the beards of their superiors, but it is a great indignity to touch it, unless with reverence. Thevenot informs us that it is customary among the Turks to swear by the beard. Shylock, in the Mercliant of Venice, complains of the in- dignity offered him in this respect : You that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur. ^^"i Most improhahJc^ — Herodotus, we may perceive from this passage, did not implicitly credit all the priests told him. Many other passages occur in the process of the work, to prove" that our historian was by no means so credulous as has been generally imagined. — Larcher. Vol. II. D 34- E IT T K R P E. he replied, " That tlie most wicked tiling he had ever done was the cutting ofF the head of his brother, who was caught in a snare in the king's treasury ; the most artful thing, was his making the guards drunk, and by that means effecting the removal of liis brother's body." On hearing this, she endeavoured to apprehend him, but he, fiivoured by the night, put out to her the dead arm, which she seizing was thus deluded, whilst he made his escape. On hearing this also, the king was equally astonished at the art and auda- city of the man ; he was afterwards induced to make a proclamation through the different parts of his dominions, that if the offender would ap- pear before him, he would not only pardon but liberally reward him. The thief, trusting to his word, appeared ; Rhampsinitus was delighted with the man, and, thinking his ingenuity beyond all parallel, gave him his daughter. The king con- ceived the iEgyptians superior in subtlety to all the world, but he thought this man superior even to the -.Egyptians. CXXIE After this event^ they told me that the same kinff""" descended alive beneatli the earth, to what the Greeks call the infernal re- gions, where he played at dice with the goddess 2°^ The same king.] — The kings of /Egypt had many names and titles; these names and titles have been branched out into persons, and inserted in the lisls of the real nionarchs. EUTERPE. 35 Ceres "^'-^j and alternately won and lost''". On his retnrn she presented him with a napkin em- broidered with gold. This period of his return was observed by tlie J^Lgyptians as a solemn festival, and has continued to the time of my remembrance ; whether the above, or some other I have mentioned of Osiris, that he was exposed in an ark, and fur a long time in a state of death ; the like is said of Oius, Adonis, Thamuz, and Talus, Tulus, or Thoulos. — Lastly, it is said of Rhameses, whom Herodotus calls Rhani- psinitus, that he descended to the mansions of death, and after some stay returned to li9 E U T E K P E. of tlie slioplierd I^liiiitis""', v.lio at tliat tiir.e fed Ills cattle in those places. This is probably the ii'uson, observes M. Larcher, why his- torians are so much dividod in opiniciu concerning the names of the princes who erected the pyramids. This seems a proper place to do an act of justice to our countryman Shaw. In his remarks on this passage of Herodotus, Shaw says, Herodotus indeed, who has preserved these reports, doth not give much credit to them ; wliich his French translator has thus ignorantly rendered : — " II faut avouer cependant que Ilerodote qui nous a transmis tous ces beaux contes no merite pas d'etre cru a cet regard." Shaw says no such thing; he is, however, evidently mistaken, when he says that of the two great pyramids, Cheops erected the first, and the daughter of Cheops the second. According to Herodotus, Cheops constructed the first, Chephren the second, and My- cerinus the third. That which the daughter of Cheops built was opposite to the first and largest, and in the middle be- tween the two others. ^-^ P/Hliii.s.] — Some of the pyramids in ^gypt were styled the pyramids of the shepherd Philitis, and were said to have been built by people whom the Egyptians held in abomi- nation ; from whence we may form a judgment of the per- sons by whom these edifices were erected. iNIany hills and places of reputed sanctity were denominated from shep- herds. Caucasus, in the vicinity of Colchis, had its name conferred V)y Jupiter, in memory of Caucasus, a shepherd. Mount Citha-ron, in Bicotia, was called Asterius, but re- ceived the former name from one Citha^ron, a shepherd, sup- posed to have been there slain. — Bryant. The shepherds alluded to were probably the Israelites. — See some acute remarks on the superstitions and ignorance of the ancient ^Egyptians in the time of Herodotus, in Gilford's ex- cellent translation of Juvenal, pp. 4/1, ~, 3. Qui de iis scripserunt, says I'liny, speaking of the pvra- E U T E R P E. 53 CXXIX. JMyceriinis, the son of Cheops, suc- ceeded Chephreii : as he evidently disapproved of his father's conduct, he commanded the tem- ples to be opened, and the people, who had been reduced to the extremest affliction, were again permitted to offer sacrifice, at the slirines of their gods. He excelled all that went before him, in his administration of justice. The ^l^vgyptians re- vere his memory beyond that of all his prede- cessors, not only for the equity of his deci- sions "^j, but because, if complaint vvas ever made of his conduct as a judge, he condescended ,to remove and redress the injury*'^. Whilst JMyce- rinus tlnis distinguished himself by his exem- plary conduct to his subjects, he lost his daughter and only child, the first misfortune he expe- rienced. Her death excessively afflicted him ; and wishing to honour her funeral with more than ordinary splendour, he enclosed her body niids, sunt Herodotus, Euhemerus, Duris" Samius, Arista- goras, Dionysius, Aitemidorus, Alexander Polyhislor, Buto- nides, Antisthencs, Demetrius, Demeteles, Apion. Inter eos omnes non constat a quibus facta? sint, justissiuio casu oblite- ratis tantai vanitatis auctoribus. "^ Eqitifj/ of his decisiuns.] — It appears, as well from this paragraph as the remainder (if the chaptei', that the kings administered justice to their subjects in person. It is not, therefore, veiy easy to see what could induce INI. Pauw to assert that the sovereigns of ^gypt had not the power of deciding in any civil cause. — Larclier. --9 Redress the injury. ~\ — -Diodorus Siculus relates the same fact; and says, that he expended large sums of money in making compensation to such as he thought injured by judi- cial decisions. — T. 54 E U T E 11 r E. in an heifer*'" made of wood, and richly orna- mented with gold. '"^' 230 1,1 an heifer.] — The Patrica were not only rites of JMi- thres, but also of Osiris, who wiis in reality the same deity. We have a curious inscription to this purpose, and a repre- sentation which was lirst exhibited by the learned John Price, in his observations upon Apuleius. It is copied I'roni an original which he saw at Venice, and there is an engraving from it in the edition of Herodotus by Gronovius, as w^ell as in that by VVesseling, but about the purport of it they arc strangely mistaken. They suppose it to relate to a daughter. of INIyceruius, the son of Cheops. She died, it seems, and her father was so atlected with her death, that he made a bull of wood, which he gilt, and in it interred his daughter Herodotus says that he saw the bull of Mycerinus, and that it alluded to this history. But notwithstanding the authority of this great author, we may be assured, that it was an em- blematical representation, and an image of the sacred bull, Apis and IMnevis. — Bryant. Larcher is vcr}' severe on Mr. Bryant for his mistake about the print above mentioned. But after all there is nothing but the cow, the cloth over her, and the incense burning before her, that has the smallest reference to the story of the daughter of Mycerinus ; nor is it easy to see how the inscrip- tion can be applied to it. If it represents an .-Egyptian cere- mony, it is more natural to assign it to that of the montli Athyr, mentioned by Plutarch. How Larcher found out that this print represents a cow, and not a bull, does not appear. Besides all this, Herodotus does not say that he saw either l)ull or heifer. He says, indeed, that it remained to his time, but that he relates only what he was told. 231 GulJ.] — The prophet Isaiah threatening the people of Israel for their blind confidence in BL^ypt, says, " Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven imuges of silver, and the ornaments of thy molten images of gold." Winkelmann, speaking of the antiquity of art in -^gypt, says, " Les figures tadlees originairement en bois, el les statues jettees en fonte, ont toutes leur (Kjioniination parliculierc dans hi huigue E U T E R P E. 55 CXXX. This heifer was not buried; it re- mained even to my time, in the palace of Sais, placed in a superb hall. Every day, costly aro- matics were burnt before it, and every night it was splendidly illuminated ; in an adjoining apart- ment are deposited statues of the different con- cubines of JNIycerinus, as the priests of Sais in- formed me. These are to the number of twenty ; they are colossal figures, made of wood, and in a naked state, but what women they ure intended to represent, I presume not to say : I merely relate what I was told. CXXXI. Of this heifer, and these colossal figures, there are some who speak thus : Myce- rinus, they say, conceived an unnatural passion for his daughter, and offered violence to her per- son. She having, in the anguish of her mind, strangled herself, her father buried her in the manner we have described. The mother cut off the hands of those female attendants, who as- sisted the king in his designs upon his daughter, and therefore these figures are marked by the same imperfections, as distinguished the persons they represent, when alive. The whole of this story"'', and that in particular which relates to Hebraique : par la suite des terns les premieres furent dorees ou revetues de lames d'or." — T. ^- The uhole of this stori/.] — In the old version of Hero- dotus before quoted, this passage is rendered thus : " But this is as true as the man in the moune, for that a man with 56 E U T E R r E. the hands of these figures, to me sccins very pre- posterous. I myself saw the hauds lying on the ground, merely, as I thought, from the effect of time. CXXXII. The body of this heifer is covered with a purple cloth", wliilst the head and neck are very richly gilt : betwixt the horns there is a golden star ; it is made to recline on its knees, and is about the size of a large cow. Every year it is brought from its apartment ; at the period when the ^Egyptians flagellate themselves in ho- nour of a certain god, whom it does not become me to name, this heifer is produced to tlie liglit : it was the request, they say, of the dying princess to her father, that she might once every year behold the sun. CXXXIII. Mycerinus, after the loss of his daughter, met with a second calamity ; an oracle from the city Butos informed him that he sliould live six years, but die in the seventh ; the intel- halfe an eye may clearely perceive that their hands fel off for very age, by reason that the wood, through long conti- nuance of time, was spaked and perished." — Ilciudoh/s his second Booke entituled Euterpe. 2" JVith a purple doth.'] -" The /Egyptians," says Phitarch, " have a custom in the month Athyr, of ornamenting a golden image of a bull, which they cover with a black robe of the finest linen. This they do in commemoration of Isis, and her grief for the loss of Orus." E U T E K P E. 57 ligciice astonished him, and he sent a message in return to reproach the goddess'^ with injustice; for that his father and his uncle, wlio had been injurious to mankind, and impious to the gods, had enjoyed each a length of life of which he was to be depiivcd, who was distinguished for his piety. Tlie reply of the oracle told him, that his early death * was the consequence of the conduct for which he commended himself; he had not fulfilled the purpose of the Fates, who had decreed that for the space of one hundred and fifty years iEgypt snould be oppressed; of which deter- mination the tw^o preceding monarchs had been aware, but he had not. As soon as Mycerinus knew that liis destiny was immutable, he caused an immense number of lamps to be made, by the liglit of which, when evening approached, he passed his hours in the festivity of tlie banquet"'^' : he frequented by day and by niglit the groves and streams, and whatever places he thouglit productive of delight : by this method of changing night "^* To reproach the goddess.l — Instead of ra 9st,) Valcnaer proposes to read rrj dea : " No god," says he, " had an oracle at Butos, but the goddess called by the Greeks Latona, the nurse of Apollo the son of Isis, who had an oracle at Butos held in the highest estimation." — T. * He could not be very 3'oung ; he was probably born some years before the death of his aged parent, and that was lifty- seven years before he began to reign. ■::iD Qj- f/i^, lanquet.] — jElian records many examples similar to this of Mycerinus^ in his '\'ariuiib llittiiry, book ii. chap. 41. 58 E U T E U V E. into day, and apparently multiplying his six years into twelve, he tliought to convict the oracle of falsehood. CXXXIV. This prince also built a pyra- mid * " ^ but it was not by twenty feet so high as his father's; it was a regular square on every side, three hundred feet in height, and as far as the middle, of iEthiopian stone. Sonic of the Greeks erroneously believe this to have been * This pyramid of Mycerinus, as well as that of Chephren, could not possibly be built for sepulchres. It is evident that no passage was left to enter them, which was not the case with the great pyramid ; and there is no tradition when they were erected by pious successors over the tombs of their ancestors. 236 Built a jji/raniid.] — " If," says Diodorus Sicuhis, speak- ing of this pyramid, " it is less in size and extent than the others, it is superior to them in the costliness of the nialerials, and excellence of the workmanship." — T. To the East of it is the third pyramid, said to be built by Mycerinus. Herodotus speaks of it as three hundred feet square. I measured it at the top, fourteen feet on the North side, and twelve on the East, and counting seventy-eight steps, at one foot nine inches broad, it amounts to about the number of feet. Our author affirms that it was built half way up with Ethiopian marble, that is, cased with it. Uiodorus mentions fifteen tier, so that computing each tier on the outside to be live feet deep, as I ibuiid tlicni, that will amount to seventy-five feet, which ansvvers within six feet of the height, computed at one Jiundred aiul lifty-six feel, supposing the steps to be two feet high. On this account Strabo says it was as expensive a work as the others. All round it arc remains of the granite it was adorned with, which has been pulled down, and great ]iart of it tarried away. — Pocorkc, v. i. p. IJ. E U T E R P E. 59 erected by Rhodopis ' '' the courtesan, but they do not seem to me even to know who this Rho- dopis was; if they had, they never couhl have ascribed to her the building of a pyramid, pro- duced at the expense of several thousand ta- lents* "^^': besides this, Rhodopis lived at a dif- * Yet Herodotus tells a similar story of the daiighler of Cheops. s'^T R/iod op is.]— The following account of this lUioildpis is from Strabo. It is said that this pyramid was erected by the lovers of Rhodopis, by Sappho called Doricha : she was the mistress of her brother Charaxus, who carried to Naucratis, Lesbian wine, in which article he dealt; others call her Rhodope. It is reported of her, that one day when she was in the bath, an eagle snatched one of her slippers from an attendant, and carried it to INIemphis. The king was then sitting in his tribunal; the eagle, settling above his head, let fall the slipper into his bosom : the prince, astonished at this singular event, and at the smallness of the slipper, ordered a search to be made through the country for the female to whom it belonged. Having found her at Naucratis, she was presented to the king, who made her his wife : when she died, she was buried in the manner we have described, Diodorus Siculus says, that this pyramid was believed to have been erected to the memory of Rhodopis, at the expense of some governors who had been her admirers. Perizonius, in his notes on TElian, says, that tliere were two of this name ; one a courtesan, who afterwards became the wife of Fsammitichus; the other the fellow-slave of ^sop, who lived in the time of Amasis; but Larcher satisfactorily shews that Perizonius was mistaken. — T. 238 Several thousand talents.] — Demetrius Poliorcetes com- pelled the Athenians to raise for him immediately the sum of two hundred and fifty talents, wliich he sent to his mislress GO E U T K 11 P J:. tbrciit period, in tlie time, not of jMyceriniis, but Aniasis, and many years after the monarchs ^vho erected the pyramids, llhodopis was born in Thrace, the slave of ladmon, the son of Hephasstopolis the Samian : she was the fellow- servant of /Esop, wlio wrote fables '^\ and was also Lamia, saying it was for soap. When I inform the reader that she spent this immense sum in a feast given to her lord, what is here related of Rhodopis may seem less in- credible.— T. -■'"J JE.sap, uho Xirotc fables.] — This name is so familiar, that it may at fust sight seem superliuous and inconsistent lo say any thing on the subject; but possibly every Enghsh reader may not know, that the fables which go under his name were certainly not of his composition ; indeed but little concerning him can be ascertained as fact. Plutarch assures us, that Crasus sent ^Esop to the oracle of Delphi ; that JEaop and Solon were together at the court of Cra^sus; that the inhabitants of Delphi put him to death, iiud al'ter- wards made atonement to his memory : and (inally, that Socrates versified his fables. Plato, who would not admit Homer into his commonwealth, gave iEsop an honourable place in them; at least such is the expression of Fontaine. It remains to do away one absurd and vulgar prejudice concerning him. iNIodern painters and artists have ol'ten thought proper to represent Bacchus as a gross, vulgar, and bloated personage ; on the contrary, all the ancient poets and artists repiesented him as a youth of most exquisite beauty. A similar error has prevailed with respect to iEsop : that it is an error, Ikntley's reasoning must satisfactorily prove to whoever gives it the attention which it merits. " In Plato's feast," sa}s he, " they are very merry upon Socrates' face, which resembled old Silcnus. /Esop was one of the guests, but nobody presumes to jest on his ugliness." Philoblratus has given, in two books, a description of a E U T E li P E. 61 tlie slave of ladmon ; all which may be tluis easily proved : The Dclphians, in compliance with tlie directions of the oracle, had desired publicly to know, if any one required atonement to be made for the death of /Esop ; but none ap- peared^ to do this, except a grandson of ladmon, bearing* the same name. CXXXV. Rhodopis was first carried to i^^^gypt by Xanthus of Samos, whose view v^'as to make gallery of pictures ; one is iEsop, with a chorus of animals about him ; he is painted smiling and looking thought- fully on the ground, but not a word on his deformity : the Athenians erected a statue in his honour. See Phaedrus's Fab. 1. ii. ^Esopo ingentem statuam posuere Attici, Servumque coUocarunt aeterna in basi, Patere honoris scirent ut cunctis viam, Nee generi tribui, sed virtuti gloriam. If he had been deformed, continues Bentley, a statue had been no more than a monument of liis ugliness, it would have been kinder to his memory to have let it alone. But after all, the stroiigest argument to prove that he was not of a disagreeable form, is, that he must have been sold into Samos by a trader in slaves. It is well known that these people bought up the most handsome youths they could procure. If we may judge of him from his companion and contubernalis, we must believe him a comely person. Rhodopis was the greatest beauty of her age, even to a proverb— dTTa J' 0' duoia Kcti VoSuwn tj i:aX}j. The compilers of the Encyclopeedia Britannica have given into the vulgar error, and scruple not to pronounce yEsop a person of striking deformity. — T. 62 E II T E R P E. money l>y lier person. Her liberty was pvu'chased for an immense sum by Charaxus""^ of Mytilene, son of Scamandronymus, and brother of Sapplio the poetess : thus becoming free, she afterwards continued in il^^gypt, where her beauty procured licr considerable wealth, though by no means adequate to the construction of such a pyramid : the tenth part of her riches, whoever pleases may even now ascertain, and they will not be found so great as has been represented. ' Wishing to perpetuate her name in Greece, she contrived what had never before been imagined, as an offering for the Delphic temple : she ordered a tenth part of her property to be expended in making a number of iron spits, each large enough to roast an ox ; they were sent to Delphi, where ~*° C/i(iraxiis.] — Sappho had two other brothers, Eurygius and Larychus, or rather Larichus, as it is written in Athe- iia''us, the Dorians being partial to terminations in icitus. — lyncher. Atheniieus asserts, that the courtesan of Naucratis, beloved by Charaxus, and satirised by Sappho, was called Dorica. The same author adds, that Herodotus calls her Rhodopis from ignorance ; hut the opinion of Herodotus is confirmed by Strabo. — Larcher. See AthentEus, 1. 12, c. 7- Naucratis produced many celebrated courtesans, and of great beauty. Among these was Dorica, whom Sappho reprehends in some satirical verses, because beins^ beloved by Charaxus, her brother, who had visited Naucratis on some commercial business, she extorted a great deal of money fron» him. EUTERPE. 63 they are now to be seen'^' beliiiid tlie altar pre- sented by the Chians. The courtesans of Nau- cratis"*" are generally beautiful ; she of whom we speak, was so universally celebrated that her name is familiar to every Greek. There was also another courtesan, named Archidice"*', well known in Greece, though of less repute than ^i^ Where they are now to be scen^ — They were not to be seen in the time of Plutarch ; in his tract assigning the rea- sons why the Pythian ceased to deliver her oracles in verse, Brasidias, whose office it was to shew the curiosities of the place, points out the place where they formerly stood. — T. 242 The courtesans of Nuiicratis.] — " llowbeit such arrant honest women as are fishe for everye man, have in no place the like credite as in the city of Naucrates. Forsomuch as this stalant of whom we speake, had her fame so bruted in all places, as almost there was none in Greece that had not heard of the fame of Rhodope ; after whome there sprang up also another as good as ever ambled, by name Archidice, &c. — Herodotus his second booke, entituled Euterpe. 24.-5 Archidice.] — Of this courtesan the following anecdote is related by JFAkin : She demanded a great sum of money of a young man who loved her; the bargain broke oft", and the lover withdrew re infecta : he dreamed in the night that he lay with the woman, which cured his passion. Archidice, on learning this, pretended that the young man ought to pay her, and summoned him before the judges: the judge ordered the .man to put the sum of money required, into a purse, and to move it so that its shadow might fall on Archidice; his meaning was, that the young man's pleasure was but the shadow of a real one. The celebrated Lamia condemned this decision as unjust; the shadow of the purse, she ob- served, had not cured the courtesan's passion for the money, whereas the dream had cured the young man's passion for the woman. 64 E U T E R r E. llliodopis. Charaxus, after giving Kliodopis lier liberty, returned to INIvtileiie : this woman was severely handled by Sappho in some satirical verses. But enougli has been said on the subject of lihodopis. CXXXVI. After JMyccrinus, as the priests informed me, Asychis reigned in JiLgypt ; he erected the east entrance to the temple of A^ulcan, which is far the greatest and most magnificent. Kach of the above-mentioned vestibules is ele- gantly adorned with figures well carved, and other ornaments of buildings, but this is superior to them all. In this reign, when commerce was checked, and injured, from the extreme want of money, an ordinance passed, that any one might borrow money, giving the body of his father as a pledge : by this law the sepulchre of the debtor became in the power of the creditor ; for if the debt was not discharged, he could neither be buried with his family, nor in any other vault, nor was he suffered to inter one of his de- scendants*. This prince, desirous of surpass- ing all his predecessors, left as a monument of his fame a pyramid of brick, with this inscrip- tion on a piece of marble : " Do not disparage * The laws of Knglund allow the arrest of a person's dead hndy till his debts are paid ; this mentioned by Herodotus is the first example perlnips on rt-coid of such a ciistoni. EUTERPE. 65 " my worth by comparing me to those pyramids " composed of stone ; I am as much superior to " tlicm, as Jove is to the rest of the deities ; I " am formed of bricks "^\ \\\\\c\\ were made of " mud adhering to poles drawn from the bottom " of the lake." — This was the most memorable of this kino-'s actions. CXXXVII. He was succeeded by an inha- bitant of Anysis, whose name was Anysis, and -■^^ Formtd of bricks.] — Mr. Greaves asserts, that all the pyramids wei-e made of stone, of course he did not pene- trate far enough into iEgypt to see the one here mentioned ; it is situated about four leagues from Cairo, and is noticed both by Norden and Pococke. — T. As to what concerns the works on which the Israelites were employed in /Egypt, I admit tliat I have not been able to find any ruins of bricks burnt in the (ire. There is in- deed a wall of that kind which is sunk very deep in the ground, and is very long, near to the pyramids, and adjoin- ing to the bridges of the Saracens, that are situated in the plain ; but it appears too modern to think that the bricks of which it is formed were made by the Israelites. All that I have seen elsewhere of brick building, is composed of the large kind of bricks hardened in the sun, such as those of the brick pyramid. — Norden. The nature of the bricks made by the Israelites may be easily understood ; they were unburnt bricks, of which straw made a part of the composition. Such have been seen from ancient Babylon : one of this description is preserved in the British Museum. They are every where to be seen in hot climates. Such could not be burnt without consuming the straw, which would involve an absurdity. The brick in the British Museum, brought from the site of ancient Babylon, is evidently sun-dried. It is of a friable nature, and pieces of broken reeds are clearly to be seen. Vol. II. F GO i: U T E li P E. \vho was blind. In his reign, Sabaciis "^^ king of iEtliiopia, overran /l^ypt with a numerous army ; Anysisfled to the morasses, and saved his life; but Sabacus continued master of -t'gypt for the space of fifty years. Whilst he retained his au- thority, he made it a rule not to punish any crime with death, but according to the magnitude of the offence he condemned the criminal to raise the ground near the place to which he be- lonired: bv which means the situation of the different cities became more and more elevated : they were somewhat raised under the reign of Sesostris, by the digging of the canals, but they became still more so under the reign of the /Ethi- opian. This was the case with all the cities of iEgypt, but more particularly with the city of Bubastis*. There is in this city a temple, which -•*<5 Sabacus.} — This event happened m the beginning of the reign of Hezekiah. Prideaux, on the authority of Sya- celUis, says he took Rocchoris, and burnt him alive ; but it is more generally believed that Bocchoris vi^as anterior to Sabacus: this last is the person mentioned in the book of Kings, by the name of So. — T. * Buhasfis.] — The reader will do well to consult the French Memoires sur I'iEgypte, (vol. i. p. 215, et seq.) for the description of the ruins of the Temple of Bubastis, or Bastus, now called in the vernacular tongue, Thai Baslah. It is wonderful how very minutely the description given by the French travellers corresponds with this of Herodotus, exhibiting another most striking instance of his veracity and accuracy. The ruins of the temple are of granite, and form, as the French writer expresses himself, a school of /Egyptian E U T E R P E. 67 well deserves our attention ; there may be others larger as \vell as more splendid, but none which have a more delightful situation. Bubastis in Greek is synonymous with Artemis or Diana'^^. CXXXVIII. This temple, taking away the entrance, forms an island; two branches of the Nile meet at the entrance of the temple, and then separating, flow on each side entirely round it ; each of these branches is one hundred feet wide, and regularly shaded with trees ; the ves- tibule is forty cubits high, and ornamented with various figures, none of which are less than six cubits. The temple is in the centre of the town, and is in every part a conspicuous object ; its situation has never been altered, though every other part of the city has been elevated ; a wall ornamented with sculpture surrounds the build- ing ; in the interior part, a grove of lofty trees architecture. The position of Bubastis being found, gives us a point in the course of the old Pelusiac branch of the Nile, and this has been expressed by ISfajor Rennell in the corrected map of ^Egypt, which by his kind permission ac- companies this work. 2*7 Artemis or Diana.] — Bubastis was a virgin, presided at child births,, and was the symbol of the moon. This re- semblance with their Diana caused the Greeks to name her the Diana of the ^Egyptians : yet the similitude was far from perfect, for with the latter she was not the goddess of the mountains, the woods, and the chase. F 2 68 E IT T E R P E. shades the temple, in the centre of wliich is the statue of the goddess ; the length and breadth of the temple each way, is one stadium. There is a 2)aved way w^hich leads througli the public square of the city, from the entrance of this temple to that of JNIercury ""', which is about thirty stadia in length. ■-"5 Jfcrciiri/.] — The iEgyptian Mercury was named Thoth or '! licdtli. 'I'hotli with the ^Egyptians was the inventor of the sciences ; and as iNlerciiry with the Greeks presided over the sciences, this last people called Thoth in their tongue by the name of Hermes or Mercury: they had also given the name of Mercury to Anubis, on account of some fancied similitude betwixt those deities. "It is not," says Plutarch, " a dog properly so called, which they revere under the name of Mercury, it is his vigilance and fidelity, the instinct which teaches him to distinguish a friend from an enemy, that which (to use the expression of Plato) makes this animal a suitable emblem to the god, the immediate patron of reason." Sejvius on Virgil has a remark to the same effect. — Larc/ur. This deity also with the Romans was esteemed the patron of arts, and the protector of learned men. See the Ode addressed to him by Horace, beginning with Mercuri, (nam te docilis magistro INIovit Amphion lapides canendo,) Tuque testudo, resonare septem Callida nervis, &c. Where he is not only represented as the patron, but the teacher of music. I-earned men also were called Viri Mercuiiales. Nisi Faunus ictum Dextra levasset, Mercurialium Custos vinirum, — Horace. T- E U T E R r E. 69 CXXXIX. The deliverance of -^^gypt from the iEthiopian was, as they told me, effected by a vision, which induced him to leave the country : a person appeared to him in a dream, advising him to assemble all the priests of .'Egypt, and afterwards cut them in pieces. This vision to him seemed to demonstrate, that in consequence of some act of impiety, which he was thus tempted to perpetrate, his ruin was at hand, from Heaven or from man. Determined not to do this deed, he conceived it more prudent to withdraw him- self; particularly as the time of his reigning over iEgypt was, according to the declarations of the oracles, now to terminate. During his former residence in Ethiopia, the oracles of his coun- try'*^ had told him, that he should reign fifty years over iEgypt : this period being accom- plished, he was so terrified by the vision, that he voluntarily withdrew himself CXL. Immediately on his departure ""^ from iEgypt, the blind prince quitted his place of re- f uge, and resumed the government : he had re- 249 The oracles of his countiy.] — The oracles in j^itljiopia were the oracles of Jupiter. — T. ^^^ On his c?e/?a/'^M;-c.]— Diodorus Siculus says, that after the departure of Sabacus there was an anarchy of two years, which was succeeded by the reign of twelve kings, who at their joint expense constructed the labyrinth. 70 EUTERPE. sided for the period of fifty years in a solitary island, wliicli he himself had formed of ashes and of earth. He directed those ^Egyptians who fre- quented his neighbourhood for the purpose of disposing of their corn, to bring with them, un- known to their ^Ethiopian master, ashes for his use. Amyrtaeus was the first person who dis- covered this island, which all the princes who reigned during the space of five hundred years "^ before Amyrtaius, were unable to do : it is called Elbo*, and is on each side ten stadia in length. CXLI. The successor of this prince was Sethos, a priest of Vulcan"'* ; he treated the military of -5^ Fixe hundred pears.] — M. Larcher says that the term of seven hundred is a mistake, and crept into the manu- script of Herodotus from a confusion of the numeral letters by copyists. 1 he remark is as old as Perizonius, and ac- counted for by Bouhier. I have accordingly, on their joint authority, altered the reading from seven to five hundred, wliich indeed is also more consistent with probability. * The El in this word, as well as in others which occur, seems to indicate that these were Arabia names, and that the El is the article. 252 p,i(.(;f (jj" Vulcan.l — The following account is given by ^I. Larcher, from Plato, Plutarch, and Diodorus Siculus. A prince cannot reign in ^gypt if he be ignorant of sacred affairs. If an individual of any other class comes acci- dentally to the crown, he must be immediately admitted of the sacerdotal order. " The kings," says Plutarch, " must be either of the order of priests or soldiers, these two classes being distinguished, the one by their wisdom, the other by EUTERPE. 71 ^^gypt with extreme contempt, and as if he had no occasion for their services. Among other in- dignities, he deprived them of their arurae"^^, or fields of fifty feet square, which, by way of re- ward, his predecessors had given to each soldier : the result was, that when Sennacherib, king of Arabia and Assyria, attacked /Egypt with a mighty army, the warriors, whom he had thus treated, refused to assist him. In this perplexity the priest retired to the shrine of his god, before which he lamented his danger and misfortunes : here he sunk into a profound sleep, and his deity promised him in a dream, that if he marched to their valour." — When they have chosen a warrior for king, he is instantly admitted into the order of priests, who instruct him in their mysterious philosophy. The priests may cen- sure the prince, give him advice, and regulate his actions. By them is fixed the time when he may walk, bathe, or visit his wife. " Such privileges as the above," says M. Larcher, " must necessarily inspire them with contempt for the rest of the nation, and must have excited a spirit of disgust in a people not blinded by superstition," Sethos however experienced how dangerous it was to follow the maxims of the priesthood only. 253 Ariinv.] — Arura is a Greek word, which signifies lite- rally a field ploughed for corn, and is sometimes used for the corn itself. It was also an iEgyptian measure. " ^gypt," says Strabo, " was divided into prajfectures, which again were divided into Toparchise, and these into other portions, the smallest of which were termed apovpat." Suidas says it was a measure of fifty feet : from this word its derived aninn, aro, &i.c.—See Hoffman on this icord. 72 EUTERPE. meet the Assyrians he should experience no in- jury, for that he wouhl furnish him with assistance. The vision inspired liim with confidence ; he put himself at the head of his adherents, and marched to Pelusium, the entrance of .^gypt ; not a soldier accompanied the party, which was entirely com- posed of tradesmen"'^ and artizans. On their arrival at Pelusium, so immense a number of mice '^^ infested by night the enemy's camp, that their quivers and bows, together with what se- •^* Tradesmen^ — The Egyptians were divided into three classes ; those of rank, who, with the priests, occupied the most distinguished honours of the state ; the military, who were ah^o husbandmen ; and artizans, who exercised the meaner employments. The above is from Diodorus SicuUis, who speaks probably of the three principal divisions : Herodotus mentions seven classes. — Lurcher. 255 Immense a number of mice^ — The Babylonish Talmud hath it, that this destruction upon the army of the Assyrians was executed by lightning, and some of the Targums are quoted for saying the same thing : but it seemeth most likely, that it was eflected by bringing on them the hot wind, which is fre- quent in those parts, and often when it lights among a multi- tude destroys great numbers of them in a moment, as it fre- quently happens in those vast caravans of the Mahometans who go their annual pilgrimages to Mecca; and the words of Isaiah, which threatened Sennacherib with a blast that God would send upon him, seem to denote this thing. Herodotus gives us some kind of a disguised account of this deliverance from the Assyrians, in a fabulous application of it to the city of Pclubium, instead of Jerusalem, and to Sethosthe ^Egyptian, instead of llezekiah. It is particularly to be remarked, that Herodotus calls the king of Assyria Sennacherib, as the Scriptures do, and the E U T E R r E. 73 ciivctl tlieir jshields to their arms, were gnawed in pieces. In tlie morning the Arabians, finding themselves without arms, fled in confusion, and lost great numbers of their men. There is now to be seen in the temple of Vulcan, a marble statue of this king, having a mouse in his hand, time in both doth also well agree; which plainly shows that it is the same fact that is referred to by Herodotus, although much disguised in the relation; which may be easily ac- counted for, when we consider that it comes to us through the hands of such as had the greatest aversion both to the nation and to the religion of the Jews, and therefore would relate nothing in such a manner as would give reputation to either. — Prideaux's Connection. M.Larcher, in a note of five pages on the above, says little more than our countryman, except that he adopts, with respect to the destruction of the army of Sennacherib, the opinion of Josephus, whose words are these; " Sennacherib, on his return from the Egyptian war, found his army, which he had left under Rabshakeh, almost quite destroyed by a judicial pestilence, which swept away, in officers and common soldiers, the first night they sat down before the city, one hundred eighty-five thousand men." In his first edition, Larcher adopted the opinion of Josephus, that this destruction of Sennacherib's army was occasioned by a judicial pestilence; but in his second he retracts this, and considers it as erroneous, and for these reasons : there are no stagnant waters in the neighbourhood of Pelusium, and consequently no putrid exhalations to corrupt the air, or injure the health of the Assyrians. But suppose there had, how could these have eft'ected the destruction of one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the space of three days. This could only have been by a miracle not less than that recorded in Scripture. Thus, Larcher pertinently observes, in order to detract from Scripture, men, without perceiving it, fall into the most disgusting absurdities. 74 E U T E R r E. 1111(1 with this inscription : " AVhoevcr thou art, " k'arn, from my fortune, to reverence the gods." CXLII. Thus, according to the information of the ^Egyptians and their priests, from the first king to this last, who was priest of A^ulcau, a period of three hundred and forty-one gene- rations had passed, in which there had hecn as many high priests, and the same numher of kings. Three generations are equal to one hundred years, and therefore three hundred generations are the same as ten thousand years ; the forty- one generations that remain, make one thousand three hundred and forty years. During the above space of eleven thousand three hundred and forty years, they assert that no divinity appeared in a human form; but they do not say the same of the time anterior to this account, or of that of the kings who reigned afterwards. During the above period of time the sun, they told me, had four times * deviated from his ordinary course, having twice risen where he uniformly goes down, and twice gone down where he uniformly rises. This however had produced no alteration in the climate of ^Egypt ; the fruits of the earth, and the pha^nomcna of the Nile, had always been tlie * After examining the dift'eient attempts to explain this story of the sun's changing his phice four times, Lurcher cuts the knot, by representing this as an extravagant rodomontade of the priests. The EUTERPE. 75 same, nor had any extraordinary or fatal diseases occurred. CXLIII. When the historian Hecatams"^'^' was at Thebes, he recited to the priests of Jupiter the The Greeks had a fabulous tradition of the same kind, Plato relates, that under the reign of Atreus, the sun and stars changed their situation in the heavens. And if to those ^Egyptian wizards old, "Which in star rede were wont have best insight, Faith may be given, it is by them told That since the time they first took the sun's heigiit, Four times his place he shifted hath in sight, And twice hath risen where he now doth west, And wested twice where he ought rise aright. Spenser, book v. stanz. 8. 256 Jf^^^/i f/n; historian Hecatcriis.l — Athenjeus relates the same circumstance as from Hecataeus, which may serve to confirm the assertion of Porphyry, that Herodotus took great part of his second book, with very slight alteration, from Hecativus. If this fact be once allowed, Herodotus will lose the character that he has long supported, of an honest man, and a faithful historian. But it appears from Athenaius himself, that the work which in later ages passed under the name of IIecata?us the INIilesian, was not univer- sally acknowledged for genuine ; and Callimachus, who em- ployed much of his time and pains in distinguishing genu- ine from spurious authors, attributes the supposed work of Hecatajus to another and a later writer. But what is perhaps even a stronger proof in our author's favour, is that he is never charged with the crime of theft by Plutarch, whose knowledge of this plagiarism, if it had ever existed, cannot be questioned, when we consider his extensive and accurate learning; and whose zeal to discover it cannot be doubted, when we reflect that he has written a treatise expressly to 7C EUTERPE. particulars of his descent, and endeavoured to prove that he was the sixteenth in a right line from some god. But they did to him what they afterwards did to me, who liad said notliing on the subject of my family. They introduced me into a spacious temple, and displayed to me a nun^ber of figures in wood ; this number I have before specified, for every high priest places here, prove the malignity of Herodotus, though in fact it only proves his own. Could Plutarch miss such an opportunity of taxing Herodotus ? Could he have failed of saying, that this historian was at once so malicious and so ungrateful as to speak with disrespect and contempt of the author to whom he was ohliged for a considerahle portion of his own history ? Our materials for an account of Hecatteus are at best but scanty. He was a native of Miletus, and son of one ^gi- sander ; he was one of the very first writers of prose, with Cadmus and Pherecydes of Scyros. Salmasius contends that he was older than Pherecydes, but younger than Eume- lus. The most ample account of him is found in Vossius. lie certainly wrote a book of genealogies; and the sentence with which he commences his history is preserved in Demetrius Phalereus : it is to this ellect, " What follows is the recital of Hecatajus of INIiletus; I write what seems to me to be true. The Greeks in my opinion have related many tilings contra- dictory and ridiculous." 'I"he ^Egyptian priests absolutely denied to Hecata?us the possibility of a human being's descent from a god. Bergier had connected this sentence with the declaration of the same priests to Herodotus, that no divinity appeared in a human form for a specified number of years. Larcher, not attending to this, blames Bergier, as if the other passage did not occuv m Herodotus. — T. E U T E R P E. 77 during his life, a wooden figure of himself The priests enumerated them heforc me, and proved, as they ascended from the last to the first, that the son followed the father in regular succession. When Hecataeus, in the explanation of his gene- alogy, ascended regularly, and traced his descent in the sixteenth line from a god, they opposed a similar mode of reasoning to his, and absolutely denied the possibility of a human being's descent from a god. They informed him that each of these colossal figures M^as a Firomis"'^ descended 257 Pirofriis.] — There are man}^ strange and contradictory opinions about this passage, which, if I do not deceive my- self, is very plain, and the purport of it this: — "After the fabulous accounts, there had been an uninterrupted succession of Piromis after Pironiis, and the J^lgyptians referred none of these to the dynasties of either the gods or heroes, who were supposed to have first possessed the country." — From hence 1 think it is manifest that Piromis signifies a man. — Bn/anf. INI. Lacroze observes, that Brama, which the Indians of Malabar pronounce Biroumas, in the Sanscreet or sacred Lmiiuawe of India, signifies the same as Piromis : and that Co 7 0 Pirimia, in the language of the inhabitants of Ceylon, means also at this day a man. Qutere, is this coincidence the effect of chance, or of the conquests of Sesostris, who left colonies in various parts of Asia? — LarcJier. If it were admitted that ^^gypt was colonized from India, every difficulty of this kind vanishes at once. Larcher either did not think of this mode of solving it, or distrusted the fact. Nothing certainly appears more absurd than this double line of priests and kings, who each reigned for thirty-three years, fur three hundred and forty-one generations. It 78 EUTERPE. from a Piromis; and they farther asserted, that without any variation this had uniformly occurred to tlie numher of the tlirce liundrcd and forty- one, but in this whole series there was no refe- rence either to a god or a hero. Piromis, in the ^igyptian language, means one " beautiful and good." CXLIV. From these priests I learned, that the individuals whom these figures represented, so far from possessing any divine attributes, had all been what I have described. But in the times which preceded, immortal beings "* had reigned It is hardly possible that Herodotus should have been mistaken in his explanation of this word. We have a suffi- cient number of examples in our own language, what va- riation of meaning words undergo by the process of time. Thus, from the Saxon gode, good, we have God ; the ori- ginal meaning of man was sin. See Casaubon's remarks on this circumstance. In the old Saxon manuscripts these words good and evil, when they signif}' God and man, are distin- guished by a particular accent. If the reader wishes to see more on this subject, he may consult Casaubon de Lingua Anglic^ Vetera, p. 236". 2^*^ Immortal beings.'] — M. Larcher says, that all govern- ments were at first theocratic, and afterwards became mo- narchic and democratic. In the theocratic form the priests governed alone, who also preserved a considerable influence in monarchies and republics. What prevents our supposing that ^gypt was governed many thousand years by priests ; and that this government, in reality theocratic, was named EUTERPE. 79 in Mgy])t, that tliey had communication with men, and had uniformly one superior ; that Orus"'^, whom the Greeks call Apollo, war, the last of these ; he was the son of Osiris, and, after he had expelled Typhon''^", himself succeeded to from that -deity to whom the high priest who enjoyed the sovereign authority attached himself? In all this, Larcher is wrong, and ought to be corrected. The first governments were patriarchal, then monarchical. The conclusion of the' learned Frenchman's remark is absurd enough. iEgypt was governed by kings in the time of Moses : the high antiquity of -^gypt is still among the prevailing cant of infidels. Larcher should have reconsidered this note. 259 Oriis.] — According to Plutarch, the ^Egyptians held two principles, one good, the other evil. The good prin- ciple consisted of three persons, father, mother, and son ; Osiris was the father, Isis the mother, and Orus the son. The bad principle was Typhon : Osiris, strictly speaking, was synonymous with reason ; Typhon the passions, aXoyoCf without reason. — T. 260 Typhon.'] — Typhon, as the principle of evil, was al- ways inclined to it ; all bad passions, diseases, tempests, and earthquakes, were imputed to him. Like the untutored In- dians and savages, the ^Egyptians paid adoration to Typhon, from fear ; they consecrated to him. the hippopotamos, the crocodile, and the ass. According to Jablonski, the word Ty- phon is derived from Then a wind, and phou pernicious. To Osiris is ascribed the introduction of the vine ; " and where," says Mr. Bryant, " that was not adapted to the soil, he showed the people the way to make wine of barley." — T. The Greeks considered Osiris the same person as Bacchus, because they discovered a great resemblance between the fables related of Bacchus and the traditions of the ^Egyptians 80 EUTERPE. the throne ; it is also to be observed, that in the Greek tongue Osiris is synonymous with Bacchus. CXLV. The Greeks considered Hercules, "Bac- chus, and Pan, as the youngest of their deities ; but /Egypt esteems Pan as the most ancient of the gods, and even of those eight *^' who arc ac- counted the first. Hercules was among those of the second rank in point of antiquity, and one of concerning Osiris. Learned men uf modern times have believed that Isuren, one of liie three divinities to whom the Indians now pay adoration, is the ancient Osiris, but this remains to be proved. — Laiclicr. The three Indian deities are Brama, Vishnou, and Seeva; where Larcher found Isuren, I cannot imagine. 261 Eien of those eight.] — The ark, according to the tra- ditions of the Gentile world, was prophetic, and was looked upon as a kind of temple or place of residence of the Deity. In the compass of eight persons it comprehended all man- kind ; which eight persons were thought to be so highly favoured by Heaven, that they were looked up to by their posterity with great reverence, and came at last to be reputed deities. Hence in the ancient mythology of /Egypt there were precisely eight gods ; of these the sun was chief, and was said to have reigned first. Some made Ilephaistus the first king of that country; whilst others supposed it to have been Pan. There is no real inconsistency in these accounts; they were all three titles of the same deity, the Sun. — Bryant. Herodotus says, eight of the first sort; he also tells us that Orus, the Apollo of the Greeks, was the last god that reigned : what tlien can Mr. Bryant mean by saying ho was the first i E U T E R P E. 81 those called the twelve gods. Bacchus was of the third rank, and among those whom the twelve produced. I have before specified the number of years which the iEgyptians reckon from the time of Hercules to the reign of Amasis : from the time of Pan a still more distant period is reckoned; from Bacchus, the youngest of all, to the time of Amasis, is a period, they say, of fifteen thousand years. On this subject the ^Egyptians have no doubts, for they profess to have always computed the years, and to have kept written accounts of them with the minutest accuracy. From Bacchus, who is said to be the son of Semele, the daughter of Cadmus ^^'\ to the present time, is one thousand six hundred years : from Hercules, the reputed son of Alc- mena, is nine hundred years; and from Pan, whom the Greeks call the son of Penelope and Mercury, is eight hundred years, before which time was the Trojan war. CXLVI. Upon this subject I have given my own opinion, leaving it to my readers to deter- =62 Daughter of Cadmus.]— The son of Cadmus is sup- posed to have lived at the time of the Trojan war; his daughter Semele is said to have been sixteen hundred years before Herodotus, by that writer's own account : — She was at this rate prior to the foundation of Argos, and many centuries before her father, near a thousand years before her brother. — Bryant. Vol. II. G 82 EUTERPE. mine for themselves. If these deities had been known in Greece, and then grown old, like Hercules the son of Amphitryon, Bacchus the son of Semelc, and Pan the son of Penelope, it might have been asserted of them, that altliough mortals, they possessed the names of those deities known in Greece in the times which preceded. The Greeks affirm of Bacchus, that as soon as he was born"*'' Jove inclosed him in his thigli, and carried him to Nysa *, a town of ^Ethiopia *^^ As soon as he was bor/i.^ — Upon this subject I have somewhere met an opinion to the following effect : When the ancients spoke of the nativity of their gods, we are to understand the time in which their worship was first intro- duced ; when mention is made of their marriage, reference is to be made to the time when the worship of one was combined with that of another. Some of the ancients speak of the tombs of their gods, and that of Jupiter in Crete was notorious, the solution of which is, that the gods sometimes appeared on earth, and after residing for a time amongst men, returned to their native skies : the period of their return was that of their supposed deaths. The following remark is found in Cicero's Tusculan Ques- tions; "Ipsi illi majoriim gentium dii qui habentur hinc a nijbis in ccflum profecti reperiuntur." — The gods of the po- pular religions were all but deceased mortals advanced from earth to heaven. — T. * Diodorus Siculus makes the same remark, and adds, that from this circumstance he derived bis name of Dio- nusos, from his father, and the place where he was brought up. There were |)laccs of this name in Arabia, Cajipadocia, Caria, India, uiul lAclia. EUTERPE. 83 beyond Mgypt: with regard to the nativity of Pan they have no tradition among them ; from all which, I am convinced, that these deities were the last known among the Greeks, and that they date the period of their nativity from the precise time that their names came amongst them ; — the ^Egyptians are of the same opinion. CXLVII. I shall now give some account of the internal history of ^gypt ; to what I learned from the natives themselves, and the information of strangers, I shall, add what I myself beheld. At the death of their sovereign, the priest of Vulcan, tlie ^Egyptians recovered their freedom; but as they could not live without kings, they chose twelve, among whom they divided the different districts of j351gypt. These princes con- nected themselves with each other by inter- marriages, engaging solemnly to promote their common interest, and never to engage in any acts of separate policy. The principal motive of their union was to guard against the declaration of an oracle, which had said, that whoever among them should offer in the temple of Vulcan a libation from a brazen vessel, should be sole sovereign of iEgypt ; and it is to be remembered that they assembled indifferently in every temple. CXLVIIL It was the resolution of them all, to leave behind them a common monument of o 2 84 E U T E R P E. their fame: — With this view, beyond the lake INIocris, near the city of crocodiles '''', they con- structed a labyrinth '''^ ', which exceeds, I can truly 2^ City of crocodiles.] — Wa are ignorant of the real name of this city; it is very probable that it was called from the word Champsis, which according to our author was the ^Egyptian term for crocodile. — Larchcr. 263^ laii/rinth.] — Diodorus says this was built as a se- pulchre for jNIendes ; Strabo, that it was near the sepulchre 6f the king that built it, which was probably Imandes. Pomponius Mela speaks of it as built by Psammitichus ; but' as Menes or Imandes is mentioned by several, possibly he might be one of the twelve kings of greatest influence and authority, who might have the chief ordering and direction of this great building, and as a peculiar honour might have his sepulchre apart from the others. It was such an extraordinary building, that it was said Daedalus came to ^gypt on purpose to see it, and built the labyrinth in Crete for king Minos on the model of this. See a minute description of the labyrinth and temple of the labyrinth by Pococke. Amidst the ruins of the town of Caroun, the attention is particularly fixed by several narrow, low, and very long cells, which seem to have had no other use than of containing the bodies of the sacred crocodiles : these remains can only correspond with the labyrinth. Strabo, Herodotus, and Ptolemy, all agree in placing the labyrinth beyond the city Arsinoe toward Libya, and on the bank of the lake Mocris, which is the precise situation of these ruins. Strabo's account of this place does not exactly accord with that of Herodotus, but it confirms it in general : Strabo describes winding and various passages so artfully contrived, tliat it was impossible to enter any one of the palaces, or to leave it when entered, without a guide. — Sdvari/. EUTERPE. 85 say, all that has been said of it ; whoever will take the trouble to compare them, will find all the works of Greece much inferior to this, both in regard to the workmanship and expense. The temples of Ephesus and Samos may justly claim The architect who should be employed to make a plan of the labyrinth, from the description of Herodotus, would find himself greatly embarrassed. We cannot form an idea of the parts which composed it; and as the apartments were then so differently formed from ours, what was not obscure in the time of our author, is too inuch so for us at present. M. Larcher proceeds in an attempt to describe its archi- tecture ; and informs the reader, that he conceives the courts must have been in the style of the hotel de Soubise. There were anciently four celebrated labyrinths; one in ^gypt, a second in Crete, a third at Lemnos, and a fourth erected by Porsenna in Tuscany. That at Lemnos is de- scribed in very high terms by Pliny. Labyrinth, in its original sense, means any perplexed and twisted place. Suidas adds XeyeraiSs evi ruv i^Xvapuv, and it is used of prating silly people : in its figurative sense it is applied to any obscure or complicated question, or to any argument which leaves us where we first set out. The construction of the labyrinth has been imputed to many difterent persons, on which account the learned have supposed, that there were more labyrinths than one. That this was not the case is satisfactorily proved by Larcher in a very elaborate note. Larcher, after a long investigation of the subject, finally determines the situation of the labyrinth to have been at Sennour, in opposition to the authority of Pococke, the Abbti Banier, Savary, and others, but in conformity with the opinion of ]\L Gibert. See Memoires de 1' Academic des Inscriptions, v. xxviii. p. 241. 86 E U T E R r E. admiration, and the pyramids may individually be compared to many of the magnificent struc- tures of Greece, but even these are inferior to the labyrinth. It is composed of twelve courts, all of w^hich are covered ; their entrances are opposite to each other, six to the north and six to the sou til ; one wall encloses the whole ; the apartments are of two kinds, there are fifteen hundred above the surface of tlie ground, and as many beneath, in all three thousand. Of the former I speak from my own knowledge and observation ; of the latter, from the information I received. The ^Egyptians who had the care of the subterraneous apartments would not suffer me to see them, and the reason they alleged was, tliat in these were preserved the sacred cro- codiles*, and the bodies of the kings who cou- * The following note is from Mr. Wilford's Dissertation on jT.gypt and the Nile, in the third volume of the Asiatic Researches, p. 425. From the account given by Herodotus, we may conjecture that the coffins of the sacred crocodiles, as they were called, contained, in fact, the bodies of those princes whom both ^Egyptians and Hindoos named Sucas, though sue means a parrot in Sanscrit, and a crocodile in the Coptic dialect : the Sanscrit words for a crocodile are cumbhira and nacra, to which some expositors of the Amarcosh add avagraha and gnaha ; but if the royal name was symbolical, and implied a peculiar ability to seize and hold, the symbol might be taken from a bird of prey, as well as from the lizard kind, espe- cially as a sect of the ^Egyptians abhorred the crocodile, and EUTERPE. 87 structed the labyrinth : of these therefore I pre- sume not to speak ; but the upper apartments, I myself examined, and I pronounce them among the greatest efforts of human industry and art. The almost infinite number of winding passages through the different courts, excited my warmest admiration : from spacious halls I passed through smaller apartments, and from them again to large and magnificent courts, almost without end. The ceilings and walls are all of marble, the latter richly adorned with the finest sculpture ; around each court are pillars of the whitest and most polished marble : at the point where the labyrinth terminates, stands a pyramid one hundred and sixty cubits high, having large figures of animals engraved on its outside, and the entrance to it is by a subterraneous path. CXLIX. Wonderful as this labyrinth is, the lake JNIo^ris ~^\ near which it stands, it still more would not have applied it as an emblem of any legal and respectable power, which they would rather have expressed by a hawk or some distinguished bird of that order ; others, in- deed, worshipped crocodiles, and I am told that the very legend before us, framed according to their notions, may be found in some of the Puranas. 26« The lake Maris.] — That the reader may compare what modern writers and travellers have said on this subject, I shall place before him, from Larcher, Pococke, Norden, Savary, &c. what to me seems most worthy of attention, I shall 88 EUTERPE. extraordinary: the circumference of this is three thousand six hundred stadia, or sixty schaeni, I shall first remark, that Herodotus, Diodorus, and Pom- ponius INIela, differ but little in opinion concerning its extent : according to the former it was four hundred and fifty miles in circumference, the latter says it was five hundred ; the former assert also that in some places it was three hundred feet deep. 1 he design of it was probably to hinder the Nile from over- flowing the country too much, which was effected by drawing off such a quantity of water, when it was apprehended that there might be an inundation sufficient to hurt the land. The water, Pococke observes, is of a disagreeable muddy taste, and al- most as salt as the sea, which quality it probably contracts from the nitre that is in the earth, and the salt which is evej-y year left in the mud. The circumference of the lake at present is no more than fifty leagues. Larcher says we must distinguish betwixt the lake itself, and the canal of communication from the Nile ; that the former was the work of nature, the latter of art. This canal, a mcst stupendous effort of art, is still entire; it is called Bahr Yousoph, the river of Joseph, according to Savary forty leagues in length. There were two other canals with sluices at their mouths, from the lake to the river, which were alternately shut and opened when the Nile increased or decreased. This work united every advantage, and sup- phed the deficiencies of a low inundation, by retaining water which would uselessly have been expended in the sea. It was still more beneficial when the increase of the Nile was too great, by receiving that superfluity which would have pre- vented seed-time. Were the canal of Joseph cleansed, the ancient mounds re- paired, and the sluices restored, this lake might again serve the same purposes. — The pyramids described by Herodotus no longer subsist, neither are they mentioned by Strabo. When it is considered that this was the work of an indi- EUTERPE. 89 which is the length of iEgypt about the coast. This lake stretches itself from north to south, and in its deepest parts is two hundred cubits ; it is entirely the produce of human industry, which indeed the work itself testifies, for in its centre may be seen two pyramids, each of which is two hundred cubits above and as many beneath the water ; upon the summit of each is a colossal statue of marble, in a sitting attitude. The precise alti- tude of these pyramids is consequently four hun- dred cubits ; these four hundred cubits, or one hundred orgyise, are adapted to a stadium of six hundred feet ; an orgyia is six feet, or four cubits, for a foot is four palms, and a cubit six. The waters of the lake are not supplied by springs ; the ground which it occupies is of itself remarkably dry, but it communicates by a secret channel with the Nile; for six months the lake empties itself into the Nile, and the remaining vidual, and that its object was the advantage and comfort of a numerous people, it must be agreed, with M. Savary, that INIa'ris, who constructed it, performed a far more glorious work than either the pyramids or the Uibyrinth. — T. The stupendous pyramid, said to have been six hundred feet high, in the midst of the lake INlcrris, was raised, we are told, by a king named INIocris, ^lyris, Marros, Maindes, Mendes, and Imandes, a strong instance of one name va- riously corrupted ; and I have no doubt that the original of all these variations was Merhi or Modhi. F-ven to this day in India the pillars or obelisks often raised in the middle of the tanks or pools, are called Merhis. — JUlfonl, 90 E U T E R 1' E. six the Nile supplies the lake. During the six mouths in which the waters of the lake cbh, the fishery *^^ which is here carried on furnishes the royal treasury with a talent of silver^ every day ; but as soon as the Nile begins to pour its waters into the lake*, it produces no more than twenty minae. CL. The inhabitants affirm of this lake, that it has a subterraneous passage inclining inland 2G7 Thejishery.l — Diodorus Siculus informs us, thai in this lake were found twenty-two ditTerent sorts of fish, and that so great a quantity were caught, that the immense numher of hands perpetually employed in salting them were hardly equal to the work. — T. 268 Talent of silver.] — The silver which the fishery of this lake produced, was appropriated to find the queen with clothes and perfumes. — hanker. * It is diflicult to believe that the course of the Nile ever lay through the lake of Kaeroun (Mocris) ; first, because the lake is said to be shut up by elevated lands, and, secondly, because it is probable that in early times the bed of the Nile was too low to admit its waters to flow into the hollow tract which now contains the lake. Concerning the lake Mcrris the ancient stories are so im- probable, that one naturally looks for a more rational ac- count of its formation. Might not the opening of a canal for the purpose of filling the hollow space which now con- tains the lake, be the great work of forming the lake INIoeris ? They might have built the edifices described by Herodotus previous to the final influx of the water. The circumstance of the water flowing alternately into the lake and back again into the Nile, .according to the seasons, is perfectly EUTERPE. 91 towards the west, to the mountains above Mem- phis, where it discharges itself into the Libyan sands. I w^as anxious to know what became of the earth "'^, which must somewhere have neces- sarily been heaped up in digging this lake ; as my search after it was fruitless, I made enquiries concerning it of those who lived nearer the lake. I was the more willing to believe them, when they told me where it was carried, as I had before heard of a similar expedient used at Nineveh, an Assyrian city. Some robbers, w^ho were solicitous to get possession of the immense ireasures of Sardanapalus king of Nineveh, which reasonable, since the passage to it was narrow, and the ex- panse of water very great. Pococke reckons it fifty miles in length, by ten wide; JMr. Brown says, p. 169, the length may be between thirty and forty miles, the breadth nearly six. Nothing, says he, can present an appearance so unlike the works of men ; on the N. E, and S. is a rocky ridge in every appearance priniceval. — Rcnncll. ~^9 What hecmne of the earth.] — Herodotus, when he viewed this lake, might well be surprized at the account they gave him, that it was made by art ; and had reason to ask them what they did with the earth they dug out. But he seems to have too much credulity, in being satisfied when they told him that they carried the earth to the Nile, and so it was washed away by the river; for it was very extraordinary to carry such a vast quantity of earth above ten miles from the nearest part of the lake, and fifty or sixty from the further parts, even though they might contrive water-carriage for a great part of the way. This I should imagine a thing beyond belief, even if the lake were no larger than it is at present, that is, it may be fifty miles long and ten broad. — Pococke. 92 E U T E R r E. were deposited in subterraneous apartments, began from the place where they lived to dig under ground, in a direction towards them. Hav- ing taken the most accurate measurement, they continued their mine to the palace of the king ; as night approached they regularly emptied the earth into the Tigris, which flows near Nineveh, and at length accomplished their purpose. A plan entirely similar was executed in iEgypt, ex- cept that the work was here carried on not by night but by day ; the ^Egyptians threw the earth into the Nile, as they dug it from the trench ; thus it was regularly dispersed, and this, as they told me, was the process of the lake's formation. CLI. These twelve kings were eminent for the justice of their administration. Upon a certain occasion they were offering sacrifice in the tem- ple of Vulcan, and on the last day of the festival were about to make the accustomed libation *'" ; tor this purpose the chief priest handed to them the golden cups used on these solemnities, but -'" To make the accustomed libation^ — As tlie kings were also priests, they 'did not before the time of Psamniitichus drink wine ; und if sometimes they made hbations to the gods with this Hquor, it was not tliat they beheved it agree- able to them, but that they considered it as the blood of the gods who liad formerly fought against them ; they thought that their bocHcs, incorporated with the earth, had produced the vine. — Plularch, dc Imic S,- Oairide. EUTERPE. 93 he mistook the number, and mstead of twelve gave only eleven. Psammitichus"'\ who was the last of them, not having a cup, took off his hel- met "'', which happened to he of brass, and from this poured his libation. The other princes wore helmets in common, and hatl them on the present occasion, so that the circumstance of this one king having and using his, was accidental and innocent. Observing, however, this action of Psammitichus, they remembered the prediction of the oracle, " that he among them who should pour a libation from a brazen vessel, should be ^'^'^ Psammitichus ?[ — In the eight-and-twentieth year of the reign of INIanasseh ; the twelve confederated kings of iEgypt, after they had jointly reigned there fifteen years, falling out among themselves, expelled Psammitichus, one of their num- ber, out of his share which he had hitherto had with them in the government of the kingdom, and drove him into banish- ment; whereupon flying into the fens near the sea, he lay hid there, till having gotten together, out of the Arabian free- booters and the pirates of Caria and Ionia, such a number of soldiers as with the .Egyptians of his party made a considera- ble army, he marched with it against the other eleven ; and having overthrown them in battle, slew several of them, and drove the rest out of the land, and thereon seizing the whole kingdom to himself, reigned over it in great prosperity fifty- and-four years. — Pridcaux. -"^^ His helmet^ — It is certain that the ancients made use of their helmets on various occasions ; whenever any thing was to be decided by lots, the lots were cast into a helmet ; and as they appear very obvious for such a purpose, so many instances in ancient writers occur of soldiers drinking out of them, as we may now do occasionally out of our hats. — T. 94 EUTERPE. sole moiifirch of iKgypt." They minutely investi- gated the matter, and being satisfied that this action of Psammitichus was entirely the effect of accident, they could not think him worthy of death ; they nevertlieless deprived him of a con- siderable part of his power, and confined him to the marshy parts of the country, forbidding him to leave this situation, or to communicate with the rest of iEgypt. CLII. This Psammitichus had formerly fled to Syria, from Sabacus the Ethiopian, who had killed his father Nccos ; when the ^Ethiopian, terrified by the vision, had abandoned his domi- nions, those ^Egyptians who lived near Sais had solicited Psammitichus to return. He was now a second time driven into exile amongst the fens, by the eleven kings, from this circumstance of the brazen helmet. He felt the strongest resent- ment for the injury, and determined to avenge himself on his persecutors; he sent therefore to the oracle of Latona, at Butos'"\ which has 273 Latona, at Butos^ — This goddess, one of the eight most ancient divinities of the country, was called Buto, and parti- cularly honoured in the city of that name ; she had been the nurse of Apollo and Diana, that is to say, of Orus and Bubastis, whom she had preserved from the fury of Typhon ; the mole was sacred to her. Antoninus Liberalis says, that she assumed the form of this little animal to elude the pur- EUTERPE. 95 among the iEgyptians the highest character for veracity. He was informed, that the sea should avenge his cause, by producing brazen figures of men. He v^^as little inclined to believe that such a circumstance could ever occur ; but some time afterwards, a body of lonians and Carians"'^, who had been engaged in a voyage of plunder, were compelled by distress to touch at ^gypt; they landed in brazen armour. Some ^Egyptians hastened to inform Psammitichus in his marshes of this incident ; and as the messenger had never before seen persons so armed, he said, that some brazen men had arisen from the sea, and were suit of Typhon. Plutarch says, that the Egyptians rendered divine honours to the mole on account of its blindness; darkness, according to them, being more ancient than light. M. Larcher adds, as a remark upon the observation of Plu- tarch, what indeed the researches of natural historians have made manifest, that the mole is not blind, but has eyes, though very minute. 274 lonians and Cariaiis.] — See Prideaux's note in the pre- ceding chapter. — T. Psammitichus destroyed Tementhes king of ^^gypt. The god Ammon had cautioned Tementhes, who consulted him, to beware of cocks. Psammitichus being intimately ac- quainted with Pignes the Carian, learned from him that the Carians were the first who wore crests upon their helmets : he instantly comprehended the meaning of the oracle, and engaged the assistance of a large body of Carians; these he led towards INIemphis, and fixed his camp near the temple of Isis ; here he engaged and conqueied his adversary.— r PoIi/tTnus. % E U T E R P E. plundering the country. He instantly conceived this to be the accomplishment of the oracle's prediction, and entered into alliance with the strangers, engaging them by splendid promises to assist him : with them and his iEgyptian adhe- rents, he vanquished the eleven kings. CLIII. After he thus became sole sovereign of ^gypt, he built at Memphis the vestibule of the temple of Vulcan, which is towards the south ; opposite to this he erected an edifice for Apis, in which he is kept, when publicly exhibited : it is supported by colossal figures twelve cubits high, which serve as columns ; the whole of the build- ing is richly decorated with sculpture. Ajiis, in the language of Greece, is Epaphus. CLTV. In acknowledgement of the assistance he had received, Psammitichus conferred on the lonians and Carians certain lands, which were termed the Camp, immediately opposite to each other, and separated by the Nile : he fulfilled also his other engagements with them, and en- trusted to their care some ^Egyptian children, to be instructed in the Greek language, from whom come those who, in .^gypt, act as interpreters. This district, which is near the sea, somewhat below Bubastis, at the Pelusian mouth of the Nile, was inhabited by the lonians and Carians for a considerable time. At a succeeding pe- EUTERPE. 97 riod, Amasis, to avail himself of their assistance against the ^Egyptians, removed them to Memphis. Since the time of their first settlement in iEgypt, they have preserved a constant communication with Greece, so that we have a perfect knowledge of Egyptian affairs from the reign of Psam- mitichus. They were the first foreigners whom the ^Egyptians received among them : within my rcmemhrance, in the places which they formerly occupied, the docks for their ships, and vestiges of their buildings, might be seen. CLV. Of the /Egyptian oracle I have spoken already, but it so well deserves attention, that I shall expatiate still farther on the subject. It is sacred to Latona, and, as I have before said, in a large city called Butos, at the Sebennitic mouth of the Nile, as approached from the sea. In this city stands a temple of Apollo and Diana ; that of Latona, whence the oracular communications are made, is very magnificent, having porticos forty cubits high. What most excited my admi- ration, was the shrine of the goddess '^^; it was '^'^^ Shri7}e of the goddess. 1 — ^This enormoas rock, two hun- dred and forty feet in circumference, was brought from a quarry in the isle of Philae (or Philoe) near the cataracts, on rafts, for the space of two hundred leagues, to its destined place, and without contradiction was the heaviest weight ever moved by human power. Many thousand workmen, according to Vol. II. H 98 EUTERPE. of one solid stone "'^ having equal sides; the length of each was forty cubits ; the roof is of another solid stone, no less than four cubits in thickness. CLVT. Of all the things which here excite attention, this shrine is, in my opinion, the most liistory, were three yeurs enipltiyed in taking it to its place of destination. — Savari/. 276 Owe solid stone.'] — About this isle (Elephantine) there are several smaller islands, as two to the west, and tour to the south, which are high above the water, and also several large rocks of red granite. Two of them appear to have been worked as quarries, as well as the south end of Ele- phantine. Out of one of these islands probably that entire room was cut of one stone, that was carried to Sais, taking, it may be, the advantage of the situation of the rock, so as to have only the labour of separating the bottom of it from the quarry, and having first probably hollowed tlie stone into a room of the dimensions described when I spoke of Sais. — Pocoike. The grand and sublime ideas which the ancients enter- tained on subjects of architecture, and other monuments of art, almost exceed our powers of description. This before us is a most extraordinary effort of human industry and power ; but it appears minute and trilling, compared with an undertaking of a man named Stesicrates, proposed to Alexander, and re- corded by Plutarch. He offered to convert mount Athos into a statue of that prince. This would have been in circumference no less than one hundred and twenty miles, in height ten. The left arm of Alexander was to be the base of a city, capable of containing ten thousand inhabitants. The right arm was to hold an urn, from which a river was to eniptv itself into the sea. — T. EUTERPE. 99 to be admired. Next to this, is the ishuid of Chemmis, wliicli is near the temple of Latona, and stands in a deep and spacious lake ; the -Egyptians affirm it to be a floating island " : I did not witness the fact, and was astonished to hear that such a thing existed. In this island is a large edifice sacred t6 Apollo, having three altars, and surrounded by palms, the natural produce of the soil. There are also great va- rieties of other plants, some of which produce fruit, others are barren. The Egyptians thus explain the circumstance of this island's floating : it was once fixed and immovable, when Latona, who has ever been esteemed one of the eight pri- mary divinities, dwelt at Butos. Having received Apollo in trust from Isis, she consecrated and preserved him in this island, which, according to 277 Floating island.] — I am ignorant whether Chemmis has ever been a floating island. The Greeks pretend that Deles floated. I am persuaded they only invented that fable from the recital of iEgyptians settled amongst them ; and that they attributed to Delos, the birth-place of Apollo, what the /Egyptians related of Chemmis, the place of retreat to their Apollo. A rock two thousand toises long could not float upon the waves ; but the Greeks, who dearly loved the majrvellous, did not examine things so closely. — Larcher. In marshy lakes, nothing is more likely than that there should sometimes be floating masses of vegetation closely matted together. Major Rennell informs me he has seen and been actually upon a small island of this kind. H 2 100 EUTERPE. their account, now floats. This happened when Typhon, earnestly endeavouring to discover the son of Osiris, came hither. Their tradition says, that Apollo and Diana were the offspring of Bacchus and Isis, and that I^atona was their nurse and preserver. Apollo, Ceres, and Diana, the ^Egyptians respectively call Orus, Isis, and Buhastis. From this alone, jEschylus ^", son of Euphorion, the first poet who represented Diana as the daughter of Ceres, took his account, and referred to this incident the circumstance of the island's floating. CLVII. Psammitichus reigned in ^gypt fifty- four years, twenty-nine of which he consumed in the siege of a great city of Syria, which he after- wards took ; the name of this place was Azotus "'^. 278 JEschylusJ] — This was doubtless in some piece not come down to us. Pausanias says also, that -^schyhis, son of Euphorion, was the first who communicated to the Greeks the ^Egyptian history ; that Diana was the daughter of Ceres, and not of Latona. — hardier. The same remark is made by Valcnaer, in ^Vessehng's edition of Herodotus. But all are united in the opinion that Pausanias made his remark from this passage of He- rodotus.— T. -■^S AzotusJ] — The modern name of this place is Ezdoud, of which Volney remarks, that it is now famous only for its scorpions. It was one of the five satrapies of the Pl)ilistines, who kept here the idol of their god Dagon. lis !Scri|)tural EUTERPE. 101 I know not that any town ever sustained so long and obstinate a siege. CLVIII. Psammiticlius had a son, whose name was Necos, by whom he was succeeded in his authority. This prince first commenced that canal'™ leading to the Red Sea, which Darius, name was Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark from the Jews, they placed it in the temple of Dagon, at Ashdod. See 1 Samuel, chap. v. 2, 3. " When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. " And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, be- hold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord," &c. This place is also mentioned in the Acts. Philip, having baptized the eunuch of Candace, was caught away by the Spirit of the Lord, and found at Azotus. There is still in this place an old structure, with fine marble pillars, which the inhabitants say was the house which Samson pulled down. — T. MO j'lmi^ canal.l — The account given by Diodorus Siculus is this: — The canal reaching from the Pelusian mouth of the Nile to the Sinus Arabicus and the lied Sea, was made by hands. Necos, the son of Psammiticlius, was the first that attempted it, and after him Darius the Persian carried on the work something farther, but left it at length unfinished ; for he was informed by some, that in thus digging through the isthmus he would cause ^Egypt to be dehiged, for they showed him that the Red Sea was higher than the land of ^gypt. Afterwards Ptolemy the Second finished the canal, and in the most proper place contrived a sluice for confining the water, which was opened when they wanted to sail through, and was inmiediately closed again, the use of it UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA «ANTA BARBARA COLLEGE LIBRARY 102 E U T E 11 r E. king of Persia, afterwards continued. The Icngtli of this canal is equal to a four days voyage, and it is wide enough to admit two triremes abreast. The water enters it from the Nile, a little above the city Bubastis : it terminated in the Erythrcan Sea, not far from Patumos, an Arabian town. They began to sink this canal in that part of iEgypt whicli is nearest Arabia. Contiguous to it is a mountain which stretches towards INlem- phis, and contains quarries of stone. Commenc- ing at the foot of this, it extends from west to east, through a considerable tract of country, and where a mountain opens to the soutli, is discharged into the Arabian gulph. From the northern to the southern, or, as it is generally called, tlie Erythrean Sea, the sliortcst passage is over mount Casius, which divides ^'Egypt from Syria, from whence to the iVrabian gulph are ex- actly * a thousand stadia. The way by the canal. answering extrenjely well the design. The river flowing through this canal is called the Ptolemaian, from the name of its author. Where it discharges itself into the sea it has a city named Arsinoe. Of this canal, Norden remarks that he was unable to discover the smallest trace, either in the town of Kieni, or the adjacent parts. Indeed I am myself strongly inclined to believe that no such junction ever took place. * It is evident both from the Scholiast and Suidas, that the word airapTi has been omitted in the text. This chapter, as Larcher observes, very satisfactorily proves that the Arabian gulph was called the Erythrean Sea, lung be- fore the time of Alexander. See Gosselin's Geographical Work. EUTERPE. 103 on account of the different circumiiexions, is considerably longer. In the prosecution of this work, under Necos, no less than one hundred and twenty thousand ^Egyptians perished. lie at length desisted from his undertaking, being ad- monished by an oracle, that ail his labour would turn to the advantage of a barbarian ; and it is to be observed, that the ^Egyptians term all bar- barians, * who speak a language diiferent from their own. CLIX. As soon as Necos discontinued his la- bours with respect to the canal, he turned all his thoughts to military enterprizes. lie built vessels of war, both on the Northern Ocean, and in that part of the Arabian gulph which is near the Krythrean f Sea. Vestiges of his naval under- takings are still to be seen. His fleets were oc- casionally employed, but he also by land con- quered the Syrians in an engagement near the town of Magdolum''^^ and after his victory ob- * This is a singular remark from a Greek, whose nation esteemed all other nations barbarians. t By the Northern Ocean Herodotus here means the Me- diterranean Sea. The Erythrean Sea comprehends both the Arabian Gulph and the sea beyond the Straits of Babel- mandel. -^^ Magdohim.] — The battle here mentioned was against Josias, king of Judah. It did not take place at Magdolum, a place in Lower ^Egypt, but at Magiddo. 'I he resemblance of the names deceived Herodotus.— Larc/ze/v 104 EUTERPE. taincd possession of Cadytis '"', a Syrian city. The vest wliicb he wore when lie got this victory, he consecrated to Apollo, and sent to the JNIile- sian Branchidae. After a reign of seventeen years, he died, leaving the kingdom to his son Psammis. CLX. During the reign of this prince, some ambassadors arrived in ^gypt from the Eleans. This people boasted that the establishment of the Olympic games possessed every excellence, and was not surpassed even by the -Egyptians, though the wisest of mankind. On their arrival, they explained the motives of their journey ; in con- sequence of which the prince called a meeting of the wisest of his subjects : at this assembly the Eleans * described the particular regulations they -'^" Cadytis^ — This city of Cadytis could be no other than •Jerusalem. Herodotus afterwards describes tbis to be a moun- tainous city in Palestine, of the bigness of Sardis. There could be no other equal to Sardis, but Jerusalem. It is certain from Scripture, that after this battle Necos did take Jerusalem, for he was there when he made Jehoiakim king. — See Prickaux, Connect, i. 56 — 7. D'Anville also considers Cadytis as Jerusalem, thou"-h some authors dissent. See what 1 have said before on this subject. * The Eleans did not follow the advice of the ^Egyptians ; nevertheless there seenis no occasion to accuse them of EUTERPE. 105 had established ; and desired to know if the ^E,gy})- tians coukl recommend any improvement. After some deliberation, the /Egyptians enquired whether their fellow-citizens were permitted to contend at these games. They were informed in reply, that all the Greeks without distinction were suffered to contend. The iEgyjJtians observed, that this must of course lead to injustice, for it was impos- sible not to favour their fellow-citizens, in prefer- ence to strangers. If, therefore, the object of their voyage to ^gypt was to render their regu- lations perfect, they should suffer only strangers to contend in their games, and particularly exclude the Eleans. CLXI. Psammis reigned but six years ; he made an expedition to iEthiopia, and died soon afterwards. He was succeeded by his son Apries*^^ who, next to his grandfather Psam- iindue partiality. When they hecame subject to the Ro- mans, some of the great men of Rome occusionall}' wrote to them in behalf of some of the combatants: but the judges of the games made a point of not opening these letters till afler the prizes had been decided. ~^^ Apries.] — This is the same who in Scripture is called Pharaoh Hophra. It was at this period that Ezekiel was car- ried to Jerusalem, and shown the different kinds of idolatry then practised by the Jews, which makes up the subject of the 8th, t)th, 10th, and 11th chapters of his prophecies. — See Prideaux. C85 106 E U T E R P E. mitichus, was fortunate "'^ beyond all his pre decessors, and reigned five-and-twenty years He made war upon Sidon, and engaged the king of Tyre in battle by sea. I shall briefly mention in this place the calamities which afterwards befel him ; but I shall discuss them more fully '" when I treat of the Libyan affairs. Apries having sent an army against the Cyreneans, received a severe check. The iT'igyptians ascribed this mis- fortune to his own want of conduct ; and imagin- ing themselves marked out for destruction, re- volted from his authority. They supposed his views were, by destroying them, to secure his tyranny over the rest of their country. The friends, therefore, of such as had been slain, with those who returned in safety, openly re- belled. CLXII. On discovery of this, ^Vpries sent 281 Was fortunate^ — Herodotus in this place seemingly con- tradicts himself : how could he be termed most fortunate, who was dethroned and strangled by his subjects ? lie probably, as M. Larcher also observes, means to be understood of the time preceding the revolt. — T. 285 Fiic-ajid-twcnti/ years.] — Diodorus Siculus says he reigned twenty-two years; Syncellus, nineteen. -^^ Discuss them more fully ^ — This reefers to book the fourth chap. clix. of our aullior ; but Herodotus probably forgot the promise here made, for no particulars of the misfortunes of Apries are there mentioned. — T. EUTERPE. 107 Aiiiasis to sooth the malcontents. Whilst this officer was persuading them to desist from their purpose, an /Egyptian standing behind him placed an helmet on his head "'^^ saying that by this act he made him king. The sequel proved tliat Amasis was not averse'"^ to the deed; for as soon as the rebels had declared him king, he pre~- pared to march against Apries ; on intelligence of this event, the king sent Patarbemis, one of the most faithful of those who yet adhered to him, with directions to bring Amasis alive to his presence. Arriving where he was, he called to Amasis. Amasis was on horseback, and lifting up his leg, he broke wind, and bade him carry that to his master. Patarbemis persisted in de- siring him to obey the king ; Amasis replied, he liad long determined to do so, and that Apries should have no reason to complain of liim, for he would soon be with him, and bring others also. Patarbemis was well aware of the purport of this answer; taking, therefore, particular no- tice of the hostile preparations of the rebels, he returned, intending instantly to inform the king ^"^ Helmet on his head^ — The helmet, in ^Egypt, was the distinction of royalty. ^^ Was not aversei\ — Diodorus Siculus relates, that Amasis, so far from making any great efi'ort to bring back those who had abandoned Apries, according to the orders he had received from his master, encouraged tliem to persist in their rebellion, and joined himself to them. 108 E U T E 11 r E. of his danger. ^Vpiies, when he saw him, without hearing him speak, as he did not bring Amasis, ordered his nose and ears to be cut ofF. The iEgyptians of his party, incensed at this treatment of a man much and deservedly respected, imme- diately went over to Amasis. CLXIII. Apries on this, put himself at the head of his Ionian and Carian auxiliaries, who were with him to the amount of thirty thousand men, and marched against the JL^gyptians. De- parting from Sais, where he had a magnificent palace, he proceeded against his subjects ; Amasis also prepared to meet his master and the foreign mercenaries. The two armies met at IMomemphis, and made ready for battle. CLXIV. The iEgyptians are divided into seven classes '^'\ These are, the priests, the mi- 289 (Screw classes.~\ — I have remarked on this subject, chap. cxU. from Diodoriis, that the division of the ^Egyptians was in fact but into three classes, the last of which was subdivided into others. The Indians are divided into four principal casts, each of which is again subdivided ; — Bramins, the military, labourers, and artizans. — 7'. It is observable of the Iberians, that they were divided into dirterent casts, each of which had its proper function. The rank and oflice of every tribe were hereditary and unchangeable. Tliib rule of invariable distinction prevailed no where else ex- cept in India and in .ilgypl. — Bri/anL EUTERPE. 109 litary, herdsmen, swmehcrds, tradesmen, inter- preters, and pilots. They take their names from their professions. ^gypt is divided into pro- vinces, and the soldiers, from those which they inhabit, are called Calasiries and Hermotyhies. CLXV. The Hermotyhian district contains Busiris, Sais, Chemmis, Papremis, the island of Prosopis, and part of Natho ; which places, at the highest calculation, furnish one hundred and sixty thousand Hermotybians. These, avoiding all mercantile employments, follow the profession c coo 01 amis . 290 Pi'ofes^ioji of orm.s.] — With the following remark of M. Larcher, the heart of every Englishman must be in unison. To hear a native of France avow an abhorrence of despotism, and a warm attachment to hberty, has been a most unusual circumstance. On the subject of standing armies, nothing, perhaps, has been written with greater energy and street than by Mr. Moyle. " Every country," sa3'S INI. Larcher, " which encourages a standing army of foreigners, and where the profession of arms is the road to the highest honours, is either enslaved, or on the point of being so. Foreign soldiers in arms, are never so much the defenders of tbe citizens, as the attend- ants of the despot. Patriotism, that passion of elevated souls, which prompts us to noble actions, weakens and ex- pires. The interest which forms an union betwixt the prince and his subjects, ceases to be the same, and the real defence of the state can no longer be vigorous. Of this, ^iigypt is a proof: its despots, not satisfied with the national troops, always ready for service, had recourse to foreign merce- naries. They were depressed, and passed with little diflTi- no E U T E R P E. CLXVI. The Calasirians inhabit Tlicbes, Bu- hastis, Apthis, Tanis, Mendes, Sebeiinis, Atliribis, Pharbaethis, Tlnnuis, Onuphis, Aiiysis, and My- cephoris, whicli is an island opposite to Bubastis. In their most perfect state of population, these places furnish two hundred and fifty thousand men. Neither must these follow mechanic em- ployments, but the son regularly succeeds the father "^^ in a military life. culty under the dominion of the Persians, afterwards under that of Greece and of Rome, of the Mamelukes, and the Turks. The tyrant could not be loved by his slaves, and without the love of his subjects, the prince totters on his throne, and is ready to fall when he thinks his situation the nwst secure." " Amongst men," says ^schines, " there are three sorts of governments, monarchic, ohgarchic, and republican. INIon- archies and oligarchies are governed by the caprice of those who have the management of afl'airs, republics hv established laws. Know then, O Athenians! that a free people preserve their libertj' and lives by the laws, monarchies and oligarchies by tyranny and a standing army." To the above, I cannot resist the inclination I have to add from Mr. Moyle the underwritten : " The Israelites, Athenians, Corinthians, Achaians, La- ceditmonians, Thebans, Samnites, and Romans, none of them, when they kept their liberty, were ever known to main- tain any soldier in constant pay within their cities, or ever snflbred any of their subjects to make war their profession, well knowing that the sword and sovereignty always march . hand in hand." — T. -9' Regularly/ auccccds (lie fafJicr.} — We know very well, that nothing is more injurious to the police or municipal cunstitutinn of any cit}' ur colcmy. than the forcing of a par- EUTERPE 111 CLXVII. I am not able to decide whether the Greeks borrowed this last-mentioned custom ticular trade ; nothing more dangerous than the over-peopling any manufacture, or multiplying the traders and dealers, of whatever vocation, beyond their natural proportion, and the public demand. Now it happened of old in ^gypt, the mother land of superstition, that the sons of certain artists were by law obliged always to follow the same calling with their father. — See Lord Shaftesbim/'s Mincdlaneoiis Reflections. Before the invention of letters, mankind may be said to have been perpetually in their infancy, as the arts of one age or country generally died with their possessors; whence arose the policy which still continues in Indostan, of obhging the son to practise the profession of his father. — See notes to a poem called The Loves of the Plants, p. 58. The resemblance between the ancient Egyptians and the Hindoos is manifest from various circumstances. The follow- ing extract is from Robertson's Disquisition on India : The whole body of the people was divided into four orders, or casts. The members of the first, deemed the most sacred, had it for their province, to study the principles of religion, to perform its functions, and to cultivate the sciences; they were the priests, the instructors, and philosophers of tlie nation. The members of the second order were entrusted with the government and defence of the state : in peace, they were its rulers and magistrates ; in war, they were the generals who commanded its armies, and the soldiers who fought its battles. The third was composed of husbandmen and merchants; and the fourth of artizans, labourers, and servants. None of these can ever quit his own cast, or be admitted into another. The station of every individual is unalterably fixed, his destiny is irrevocable, and the walk of life is marked out, from which he must never deviate. This line of separation is not only established by civil authority, but confirmed and sanctioned by religion ; and each order. 112 E U T E R P E. from tlic /Egyptians, for I have also seen it ol)sorvcd in various parts of Thrace, Scythia, IV^rsia, and Lydia. It seems, indeed, to be an cstabhslied prejudice, even among nations the least refined, to consider meclianics and their descendants in the lo^vest rank of citizens, and to esteem those as the most nohle who were of no profession, annexing the higliest degrees of honour to the exercise of arms. This idea pre- vails throughout Greece, but more particularly at Lacedaemon; the Corinthians, however, do not hold mechanics in disesteem. CLXVIIT. The soldiers and the priests are the only ranks in ^gypt which are honourably distinguished ; these each of them receive from the public a portion of ground of twelve arurae, free from all taxes. Each arura contains an hundred iRgyptian cubits*, which arc the same or cast, is said to have proceeded from the Divinity in such a different manner, that to mingle and confound them would be deemed an act of most daring iiupiet}'. Nor is it between the four different tribes alone that such inseparable barriers are fixed; the members of each cast adhere invariably to tlie profession of their forefathers. From generation to generation the same families have followed, and will always continue to follow, one uniform line of life. * But the cubit itself, or peek {irtj-^v^), as it is still called, lias not continued the same; for Herodotus acquaints us, that ill his (ime the /Egyptian peek, oi- cubit, was the same PJ U T E R P E. 113 as so many cubits of Samos. Besides this, the miHtary enjoy, in their turns, other advantages : one thousand Calasirians and as many Hermoty- bians are every year on duty as the king's guards ; whilst on this service, in addition to their assign- ments of land, each man has a daily allowance of five pounds of bread, two of beef, with four arusteres "^" of wine. CLXIX. Apries with his auxiliaries, and Ama- sis at the head of the ^Egyptians, met and fought at IMomemphis. The mercenaries displayed great valour, but, being much inferior in number, were ultimately defeated. Apries is said to have en- w'ith the Samian, which being no other than the common Grecian or Attic cubit, contained very little more than a foot and a half of English measure. Three or four centuries afterwards, when the famous statue of the Nile, that is still preserved at Rome, was made, the cubit seems to have been, a little more or less, twenty inches; for of that height, according to the exactest measure that could be taken, are the sixteen little children that are placed upon it, which, according to Philostratus and Pliny, represented so many cubits. The present cubit is still greater, though it will be difficult to determine the precise length of it ; and, indeed, with regard to the measures of the Arabians, as well as of some other nations, we have very few accounts or standards we can trust to. — Shaw. "9* Aruateres.'] — Hesychius makes the word ctpvdTr^p syno- nymous with Korj/Xr/, which is a measure somewhat less than a pint.— T. Vol. II. I 114 E U T E R P E. tcrt;iiiied so high im opiinon of the permanence of his authority, that he conceived it not to be in the power even of a deity to dethrone him. He was, however, conquered and taken prisoner ; after his captivity lie was conducted to Sais, to what was formerly his own, hut then the palace of Amasis. He was here confined for some time, and treated by Amasis with much kindness and attention. But the Egyptians soon began to re- proach him for preserving a person who was their common enemy, and he was induced to deliver up Apries to their power. They strangled '''^ and afterwards buried him in the tomb of his ancestors, which stands in the temple of IMincrva, 293 Thci/ strangled, Spc.^ — It is to this prince, whom, as I before mentioned, the Scriptures denote by the name of Pharaoh Hophra, that the following passages allude : " The land of /Egypt shall be desolate and waste ; and they shall know that I am the Lord : because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it. " Behold, therefore, I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of iEgypt utterly waste and desolate." Ezekiel, xxix. 9, '0. " Thus saith the Lord, I will give Pharaoh Hophra, king of yEgyjU, into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life." Jeremiah, xliv. 30. See also Jeremiah, xliii. xliv. xlv. Ezekiel, xxix. xxx. xxxi. xxxii. In the person of Apries all these prophecies were accomplished. See also Pridcanx Convccf. i. 3.9. — T. " Apryes was perswaded that neither God nor the divell coulde have joynted his nose of the einpyre." — Herodotus Iris secondc booke, cnlituled FAitcrpc. EUTERPE. 115 on the left side of the vestibule. In this temple the inhabitants of Sais buried all tlie princes who were of their province, but the tomb of Amasis is more remote from the building, than that of Apries and his ancestors. CLXX, In the area before this temple, is a large marble chamber*, magnificently adorned with obelisks, in the shape of palm-trees, witli various other ornaments ; in this chamber is a niche with two doors, and here his body was placed. They have also at Sais the tomb of a certain personage, whom I do not think myself permitted to name. It is behind the temple of IVIinerva, and is continued the whole length of the wall of that building. Around this are many large obelisks, near which is a lake, whose banks * This is one of the most difficult passages in Herodotus ; which, as it perplexed Valcnaer, Toup, and Larcher, may well be supposed to have tormented me. The following passage from Pococke seems to be as illus- trative of the meaning of Herodotus, as any thing I could possibly offer. The most extraordinary catacombs are towards the further end, and may be reckoned among the finest that have been discovered, being beautiful rooms cut out of a rock, and niches in many of them, so as to deposit the bodies in, adorned with a sort of Doric pilasters on each side. The round room, and that leading to it, are very beautiful, and so are the four rooms with niches. I 2 11 n K U T E n V E. arc lined witli stone ; it is of a circular form, and, as 1 sliould think, as large as that of Dclos, which is called Trochoeides. CLXXI. Upon this lake are represented by night the accidents which happened to him whom I dare not name ; the yi'gyptians call them their mysteries "''*. Concerning these, at the same time that I confess myself sufficiently informed, 1 feel myself compelled to be silent. Of the ceremonies also in honour of Ceres, which the Greeks call Thesmophoria '", I may not venture to speak, n 294 j'/,fif. wvstcrk's.'\ — How very sacred the ancienls deemed their mysteries, appears from the following passage of Apol- lonius Ilhodius : To Samothrace, Electra's isle, they steer, That there initiate in rites divine Safe might they sail the navigable brine. But, Muse, presume not of those rites to tell : Farewell, dread isle, dire deities, farewell ! Let not my verse those mysteries explain. To name is impious, to reveal profane. 295 Xhes7nopIw)ia.] — These mysteries were celebrated at stated seasons of the year, with solemn shows, and a great pomp of machinery, which drew a mighty concourse to them from all countries. L. Crassus, the great orator, happened to come two days after ihey were over, and would gladly have persuaded the magistrates to renew them ; but not being able to prevail, left the city in disgust. This shews how cautious they were of making them too cheap. The shows are supposed to have represented heaven, hell, ely- EUTERPE. 117 farther than the obligations of religion will allow me. They were bronght from iEgypt by the daughters of Danaus, and by them revealed to the Pelasgian women. But when the tranquil- lity of the Peloponnese was disturbed by the Dorians, and the ancient inhabitants expelled. tsiuni, purgatory, and all that related to the future state of the dead : being contrived to inculcate more sensibly, and exemplify the doctrines delivered to the initiated. As they were a proper subject for poetry, so they are frequently alluded to by the ancient poets. This confirms also the probability of that ingenious comment which the author of the Divine Legation has given in the sixth book of the iEneid, where Virgil, as he observes, in describing the descent into hell, is but tracing out in their genuine order the several scenes of the Eleusinian shows. — Middtdoiis Life of Cicero. These feasts were celebrated in honour of Ceres, with respect to her character as a lawgiver and agriculturist : Prima Ceres unco glebam diniovit aratro ; Prima dedit fruges, alimentaque mitiaterris ; Prima dedit leges. Cereris sunius omnia munuh. 0fo-^t(K, according toHesychius, signifies a divine law, I'o/ioi: ditot;. The men were not allowed to be present, and only women of supojior rank. The sacred books were carried by virgins. According to Ovid, they continued nine days, during which time the women had no connection with their husbands. Festa piae Cereris celebrabant annua niatres lUa, quibus nivea velatie corpora veste Primitias frugum dant spicea serta suarum : Perque novem noctes Venerem tactusque viriles In vetitis nunierant. — ■ lis E U T E U r E. these rites were insensibly neglected or forgotten. The Arcadians, wlio retained their original lia- bitations, were the only people who preserved them. CLXXII. Such being the fate of Apries, Amasis, who was of the city of Siupli, in llic district of Sais, succeeded to the tlirone. At the commencement of his reign, the ^Egyptians, re- membering his plebeian origin "'^'', held him in contempt ; but his mild conduct and political sagacity afterwards conciliated their affection. Among other valuables which he possessed, was a gold vessel, in which he and his guests were accustomed to spit, make water, and wash their feet : of the materials of this he made a statue of some god, which he placed in the most conspi- cuous part of the city. The iKgyptians assem- bling before it, paid it divine honours : on hear- ing which, the king called them together, and informed them that the image they thus venerated w^as made of a vessel of gold, which he and they had formerly used for the most unseendy purposes. He afterwards explained to them the ''•^ Tkhcuni origin.] — We are told in Alhenajus, that the lioe of Amasis was owing to his having presented Apries on his birth-day with a beautiful chaplet of flowers. The king was so delighted with this mark of his attention, that he nivited him to the feast, and received him amongbl the number of his friends. — T. EUTERPE. 119 similar circumstances of his own fortune, who, though formerly a plebeian, was now their sove- reign, and entitled to their reverence. By such means he secured their attachment, as well as their submissive obedience to his authority. CLXXIII. The same prince thus regulated his time : from the dawn of the day to such time as the public square of the city was filled with people, he gave audience to whoever required it. The rest of the day he spent at the table ; where he drank, laughed, and diverted himself with his guests, indulging in every species of licentious conversation. Upon this conduct some of his friends remonstrated : — " Sir," they observed, " tlo you not dishonour your rank by these ex- " cessive and unbecoming levities ? From your " awful throne you ought to employ yourself in " tlie administration of public affairs, and by " such conduct increase the dignity of your " name, and the veneration of your subjects. " Your present life is most unworthy of a king." " They," replied Amasis, " who have a bow *, * This is a proverbial expression to be found ahuusL in all languages. Plutarch has almost verbatim the same saying, in his tract on, Whether the Government ought to be in the Hands of an old Man. — -oL,ov fxev, u>q (paaw, iiriretyofxcuoy pijyyvTUi. The 120 E U T E 11 V E. " bend it only at the time they want it ; when " not in use, they suffer it to be relaxed ; it " would otherwise break, and not be of service " when exigence required. It is precisely the " same with a man ; if, without some intervals " of amusement, he applied himself constantly " to serious pursuits, he would imperceptibly lose " his vigour both of mind and body. It is the " conviction of this truth which influences me in " the division of my time." CLXXIV. It is asserted of this Amasis, that whilst he was in a private condition he avoided every serious avocation, and gave himself entirely up to drinking and jollity. If at any time he wanted money for his expensive pleasures, he had recourse to robbery. By those who sus- pected him as the author of their loss, he was frequently, on his protesting himself innocent, carried before the oracle, by which he was fre- quently condemned, and as often acquitted. As soon as he obtained the supreme authority, sucli deities as had pronounced him innocent, he treated with the greatest contumely, neglecting their tem- ples, and never offering them either presents or The Italian expression is: L'Arco si rompe se sta troppo teso. Arcus niniis intensus runipitur. Kay has it : — A bow long bent, at last waxeth weak. EUTERPE. 121 sacrifice ; this he did by way of testifying his dis- like of their false declarations. Such, however, as decided on his guilt, in testimony of their truth and justice, he reverenced, as true gods, with every mark of honour and esteem. CLXXV. This prince erected at Sais, in ho- nour of IMinerva, a magnificent portico, exceed- ing every thing of the kind in size and grandeur. The stones of which it was composed, were of a very uncommon size and quality, and decorated with a number of colossal statues and andro- sphynges'^^ of enormous magnitude. To repair 2y" Androsphyngcs.'] —This was a monstrous figure, with the body of a hon, and face of a man. The artists of ^gypt, however, commonly represented the sphinx with the body of a lion, and the face of a young woman. These were generally placed at the entrance of temples, to serve as a type of the enigmatic nature of the ^Egyptian theology. — Ijarcher. " Les sphinx des yEgyptiens ont les deux sexes, c'est a dire, qu'ils sont femelles par devant, ay ant une tote de femme, & males derriere, ou les testicules sont apparantes. C'est une remarque personne n'avoit encore faite : " II resulte de inspection de quelques monumens que les artistes Grecs donnoient aussi des natures composees a ces etres mixtes, et qu'ils faisoient meme des sphinx barbus comme le prouve un has relief en terre cuite, conserve ^ la Farnesina. Lorsque Herodote nomme les sphinx des an- drosphynges, il a voulu designer par cette expression la du- plicite de leur sexe. Les sphinx qui sont aux quatre taces de la pointe de I'obelisque du soleil, sont remarquables par lJ>i2 E U T E K P E. this temple, he also collected stones of an amaz- ing thickness, part of which he brought from the quarries of JNIemphis, and part from the city of Elephantine, which is distant from Sais a journey of about twenty days. But what, in my opinion, is most of all to be admired, was an edifice which he brought from Elephantine, constructed of one entire stone. The carriage of it employed two thousand men, all of whom were pilots, for an entire period of three years. The length of this structure on the outside is twenty-one cubits, it is fourteen wide, and eight high ; in the inside. leur mains d'hommes arniOes d'ongles crochus, comme Ics grilles des betes fcioces." — Winkelmunn. Dr. Pococke observes, tbat this sphinx is cut out oi" a solid rock. This extraordinary monument is said to have been the sepulchre of Amasis, though 1 think it is men- tioned by none of the ancient author?, except Pliny. M. Maillet is of opinion, that the union of the head of a virgin with the body of a lion, is a symbol of what happens in iEgypt, when the sun is in the signs of Leo and Virgo, and the Nile overflows. — Sec Nurdcna Travels. Opposite the second pyramid, eastward, is the enormous sphinx, the whole body of which is buried in the sand, the top of the back only to be seen, which is above a hundred feet long, and is of a single stone, making part of the rock on which the pyramids rest. Its head rises about seven-and- twenty feet above the sand. Mahomet has taught the Arabs to hold all images of men or animals in detestation, and they have disfigured the face with their arrows and lances. M.Pauw says, these sphinxes, the body of which is half a virgin, half a lion, are images of the deity, whom they re- present as an hermaphrodite. — Savari/. E U T E R P E. 123 the length of it is twenty-two cubits and twenty digits, twelve cubits wide, and live high. It is placed at the entrance of the temple ; the reason it was carried no farther is this ; the architect, reflecting upon his long and continued fatigue, sighed deeply, which incident Amasis construed as an omen, and obliged him to desist. Some, however, affirm, that one of those employed to move it by levers, was crushed by it ; for which reason it was advanced no farther. CLXXVI. To other temples also, Amasis made many and magnificent presents. At Mem- phis, before the temple of Vulcan, he placed a colossal* recumbent figure, which was seventy-five feet long. Upon the same pediment are two other colossal figures, formed out of the same stone, and each twenty feet high. Of the same size, and in the same attitude, anothercolossal statue mav be seen at Sais. This prince built also at Memphis the temple of Isis, the grandeur of which excites universal admiration. * The clenched hand of a colossal statue, and not improba- bly of the one which is here actually described, now adorns the British Museum, and constitutes one of the British trophies from ^gypt. Here again Herodotus was not believed, but doubtless the principal part of Memphis is covered up with mud, by the rising of the ground, from the accumulated inundations ; considering the nature of its situation, this is obvious enough. See Major Rennell on this subject, who quotes Maillet. 124 E U T E R r E. CLXXVIl. AVith respect to all those ad- vantages which the river confers npon the soil, and the soil on the inhabitants, the reign of Anuisis was auspicious to the ^'Egyptians, who under tliis prince could boast of twenty thousand cities'-'" well inhabited. Amasis is farther re- markable for having instituted that law which obliges every ^Egyptian once in the year to ex- plain to the chief magistrate of his district, the means by which he obtains his subsistence. The 2(j8 Twenty thousand cities.~\ — This country was once the most populous of the known world, and now it does not ap- pear inferior to any. In ancient times it had eighteen thou- sand as well considerable towns as cities, as may be seen by tlie sacred registers. In the time of Ptolemy Lagus there were three thousand, which still remain. In a general account once taken of tlie inhabitants, they amounted to seven mil- lions, and there are no less than three niillions at present. — Diodorus Siculus. Ancient ^gypt supplied food to eight millions of inhabi- tants, and to Italy and the neighbouring provinces likewise. At present the estimate is not one half. I do not think, with Herodotus and Pliny, that this kingdom contained twenty thousand cities in the time of Amasis : but the astonishing ruins every where to be found, and in uninhabited places, prove they must have been thrice as numerous as they are. — Savari/. It is impracticable to form a just estimate of the population of Mgypt. Nevertheless, as it is known that the number of towns and villages docs not exceed two thousand three hundred, and the number of inhabitants in each of them, one with another, including Cairo itself, is not more than a thousand, the total cannot be more than two millions three hundred thou- sand.— Volnei/. E U T E 11 F E. 125 refusal to comply Avith this onliiianco, or the not being able to prove that a livelihood was pro- cured by honest means, was a capital offence. This law Solon''"' borrowed from iEgypt, and established at Athens, where it still remains in force, experience having proved its wisdom. CLXXVIII. This king was very partial to the Greeks, and favoured tliem upon every occasion. Such as wished to have a regular communication with ii^gypt, he permitted to have a settlement at Naucratis. To others, who did not require a fixed residence, as being only engaged in occa- sional commerce, he assigned certain places for the construction of altars, and the performance of their religious rites. The most spacious and celebrated temple which the Greeks have, they call Hellenium. It was built at the joint ex- pense of the lonians of Chios, Teos, Phocea, and Clazom.engs ; of the Dorians of Rhodes, Cnidus, Halicarnassus, and Phaselis ; of the ^olians of JNIitylene only. Hellenium is the common property of all these cities, who also appoint proper officers for the regulation of their commerce : the claims of other cities to these "90 This law Solon.] — It should rather seem that this law was established at Athens by Draco, and that Solon commuted the punishment of death to that of infamy, against all those who had thrice ofi'ended. V26 E U T E R P E. distinctions and privileges arc absurd and false. The yl^ginetae, it must be observed, coiistructcd by tlieuiselves a temple to Jupiter, as did tlie Samians to Juno, and the ISIilesians to Apollo. CLXXIX. Formerly Naucratis was the sole emporium of iEgypt ; whoever came to any other than the Canopian mouth of the Nile, was com- pelled to swTar that it was entirely accidental, and was, in the same vessel, obliged to go thither*. Naucratis was held in such great estimation, that if contrary winds prevented a passage, the mer- chant was obliged to move his goods on board the common boats of the river, and carry them round the Delta to Naucratis. CLXXX. Ijy some accident the ancient tem- ple of Delphi was once consumed by fire, and the Amphictyons voted a sum of three hundred talents to be levied for the purpose of rebuilding * Somewhat similar to this arrangement of the ancient ^Egyptians with respect to Naucratis, is that of the modern Chinese at present at Canton. This is Major Rennell's opinion. See his excellent work, p. 530. Perhaps this restriction originated in the same jealousy which in the empire of China limits the trade of Europeans to the port of Canton ; and one cannot help remarking how parallel the two cases are in this respect. The Greeks were permitted to have a commercial estahlishment at Naucratis, and they were allowed places for the construction of temples for their religious rites. »* EUTERPE. 127 it. A fourth part of tliis was assigned to the Uelphiaiis, who, to collect their quota, went ahout to different cities, and obtained a very consi- derable sum from ^gypt. Amasis presented them*'*' with a thousand talents of alum. The Greeks who resided in i^gypt made a collection of twenty minae. CLXXXI. This king made a strict and ami- cable confederacy with the Cyrenians ; to cement which, he determined to take a wife of that country, either to shew his particular attachment to the Cyrenians, or his partiality to a woman of Greece. She whom he married is reported by some to have been the daughter of Battus, by others of Arcesilaus, or, as some say, of Crito- bulus. She was certainly descended of an ho- nourable family, and her name was Ladice. When the nuptials came to be consummated, the king foimd himself afflicted with an imbecility which he experienced with no other woman. The 300 j^ijiasis presented them.'] — Dill'eient species of animals were the deities of the diiVerent sects among the iEgyptians; and the deities bemg in continual war, engaged their vo- taries in the same contention. Tije worshippers of dogs could not long remain in peace with ihe adorers of cats and wolves. But where that reason took not place, the iEg3p- tian superstition was not so incompatible as is commonly imagined, since we learn from Herodotus, that very large contributions were given by Auiasis towards rebuilding the temple of Delphi. — Hwiie. 128 E U T E R r E. continuance of this induced him thus to address his wife ; " You have certainly practised some " charm to my injury ; expect not therefore to " escape, but prepare to undergo the most cruel " death." When the woman found all expos- tulations ineffectual, she vowed, in the temple of A'^enus, " that if on the following night her hus- " band should be able to enjoy her, she would " present a statue to her at Cyrene." Her wishes were accomplished, Amasis found his vi- gour restored, and ever afterwards distinguished her by the kindest affection. Ladice performed her vow, and sent a statue to Venus ; it has re- mained to my time, and may be seen near the city of Cyrene. This same Ladice, when Cam- byses afterwards conquered iEgypt, was, as soon as he discovered who she was, sent back without injury to Cyrene. CLXXXII. Numerous were the marks of liberality which Amasis bestowed on Greece. To Cyrene he sent a golden statue of Minerva, with a portrait of himself ^'". To the temple of Mi- •■^oi I'di/rait of hinisdf.'] — The art of painting was probably known in iEgypt in the first ages, but they do not seem to have succeeded in this art better than in sculpture. Anti- quity does not mention any painter or sculptor of /Egypt, who had acquired celebrity. — Savaty. EUTERPE. 129 iierva at Lindus lie gave two marble statues, with a linen corselet, which latter well deserves inspection. At what period we may venture to fix the origin of painting, is a subject involved in great difficulty. Perhaps we are not extravagant in saying, that it was known in the time of the Trojan war. The following note is to be found in Servius, Annot. ad iEneid. ii. ver. 392. " Scutis Gr^corum Neptunus, Trojanorum fuit Minerva depicta." With respect to the ^Egyptians, it is asserted by Tacitus, that they knew the art of designing before they were acquainted with letters. " Primi per figuras animalium yEgyptii sensus mentis effingebant, et antiquissima monumenta memoris hu- mana; impressa saxis cernuntur." Annal. hb. x. cap, 14. It is ingeniously remarked by Webb, in favour of the anti- quity of painting, that when the Spaniards first arrived in America, the news was sent to the emperor in painted ex- presses, they not having at that time the use of letters. Mr, Norden says, that in the higher ^gypt to this day may be seen, amongst the ruins of superb edifices, marbles artificially stained, so exquisitely fresh in point of colour, that they seemed recently dismissed from the hand of the artist. Winkelmann says, that in the ^Egyptian mummies which have been minutely examined, there are apparent the six distinct colours of white, black, blue, red, yellow, and green : but these, in point of eflect, are contemptible, compared with the columns alluded to above, seen and described by Norden. Pococke also tells us, that in the ruins of the palaces of the kings of Thebes, the picture of the king is painted at full length on stone. Both the sides and ceilings of the room in which this is to be seen are cut with hieroglyphics of birds and beasts, and some of them painted, being as fresh as if they were but just finished, though they must be much above two thousand years old. Vol. n. K The 130 EUTERPE. He presented two figures of himself, carved in wood, to the temple of Juno at Samos ; they were placed immediately behind the gates ; where they still remain. His kindness to Samos was owing to the hospitality '"' which subsisted between him and Polycrates, the son of /Eax. He had no such motive of attachment to Lindus, but was moved by the report that the temple of Minerva The ancient heathens were accustomed to paint their idols of a red colour, as appears from the following extract from the Wisdom of Solomon : " The carpenter carved it diligently when he had nothing else to do, and formed it by the skill of his understanding, and fashioned it to the image of a man, or made it like some vile beast, laying it over with vermillion, and with paint colouring it red, and covering every spot therein." It seems rather a far-fetched explanation, to say that this was done because the first statues were set up in memory of warriors, remarkable for shedding much blood. Yet it is so interpreted in Harmer's Observations on Passages of Scripture. Of ancient painting, the reliques are indeed but few : but those extolled by Pococke and Norden, and since the period of their travels, by Bruce, who also visited Thebes, and the beautiful specimens which have at different times been dug up at llercu- laneum, are sufficient to shew that the artists possessed extra- ordinary excellence. That in particular of Chiron and Achilles, which many ingenious men have not scrupled to ascribe to Parrhasius, is said to be remarkably beautiful. ^°^ Hospitalih/J] — That tie among the ancients, which was ratified by particular ceremonies, and considered as the most sacred of all engagements : nor dissolved except with certain solenni forms, and for weighty reasons. EUTERPE. 131 was erected tlierc by the daughters of Daiitius, when they fled from the sons of iEgyptus. — Such was the munificence of Amasis, who was also the first person that conquered Cyprus, and com- pelled it to pay him tribute. At the conclusion of the first volume, I inserted an extract from our countryman, Sir Robert Wilson, descriptive of the modern state of the pyramids. I take the opportunity of the conclusion of this book to refer the reader to the French accounts of their modern condition, as given by Denon and Grobert. Of these, perhaps, neither will be found satisfactory ; the first author appeared more desirous to please by his narra- tion, than to instruct the reader ; the latter affects scientific description, but will by no means bear the test of careful examination. Grobert, indeed, gives the number and the height of the steps, but he has omitted to say whether he found the planes of the steps horizontal. It is, therefore, not approaching at all nearer the mark, to give their individual height ; as we may reasonably conclude that he did not find the planes horizontal. After all. Graves appears to afford the greatest satisfaction, as there can be no doubt but he went scientifically about his work. He tells us that the four triangular sides of the great pyramid are equilateral, excepting the plateau on the top, of not many feet. He also affirms that he ascertained the sides of those triangles, and of course the height of the pyramid; and I see no reason to doubt him. Grobert says that the pyramid is 440. 11. J. French, which is equal to 470 English feet very nearly. Graves gives 481 feet for the height, and 6'i)3 for the sides and diagonal. It is very wonderful that hardly any two persons should have come near each other in their reports of the height and dimensions of the great pyramid. The Frencl' 1S2 EUTERPE. had certainly the best opportunities possible, but they do not appear to have availed themselves of them. Grobert re- ports the length of the sides to be equal to 745| English feet, whilst Graves allows only 693|, making a difference of no less than 52| feet; which is really astonishing. One cause of variation must necessarily be the difference of foot-measures, which we know sometimes to vary even half an inch in a two- foot rule. Few of these measures possibly vary less than 70 of an inch in a foot ; so that this would make a difference in the height, of more than 20 feet. Graves may be supposed to have used every proper measure, and to him I think we must look with most confidence on this subject. HERODOTUS. BOOK III. THALIA'. CHAP. I. GAINST this Amasis, Cam- byses, the son of Cyrus, led an army, composed as well of his other subjects, as of the Ionic and ^olic Greeks. His induce- ments were these : by an am- bassador whom he dispatched for this purpose into ^gypt, he demanded the daughter of Amasis, ^ Thalia.] — On the commencement of his observations on this book, M. Larcher remarks, that the names of the JNIuses were only affixed to the books of Herodotus at a subsequent and later period. Porphyry does not distinguish the second book of our historian by the name of Euterpe, but is satisfied with calling it the book which treats of the affairs of iEgypt. Athena?us also says, the first or the second book of the his- tories of Herodotus. I am nevertheless rather inclined to believe that these names were annexed to the books of Herodotus from the spon- taneous impulse of admiration which was excited amongst the first hearers of them at the Olympic games. According 134 THALIA. which he did at the suggestion of a certain iEgyp- tian who had entertained an enmity against his master. This man was a physician, and when Cyrus had once requested of Amasis, the best medical advice which iEgypt could afford, for a disorder in his eyes, the king had forced him, in preference to all others, from his wife and family, and sent him into Persia. In revenge for which treatment, this Egyptian instigated Camhyses to According to Pausanias, there were originally no more than three Muses ; whose names were MtXirij, Mprjuv, and Aoi^tf. Their number was afterwards increased to nine, their residence confined to Parnassus, and the direction or pa- tronage of them, if these be not improper terms, assigned to Apollo. Their contest for superiority with the nine daughters of Evippe, and consequent victory, is agreeably described by Ovid. Met. book v. Their order and influence seem in a great measure to have been arbitrary. The names of the books of Herodotus have been generally adopted as deter- minate with respect to their order. This was, however, without any assigned motive, perverted by Ausonius, in the subjoined epigram : Clio gesta canens, transactis tempora reddit. Melpomene tragico proclamat niotsla boatu. Comica lascivo gaudet sermone Thalia. Dulciloquos calamos Euterpe flatibus urget. Terpsichore afl'ectus citharis movet, imj)erat, auget. Plectra gerens Erato sallat pedc, carmine vultu. Carmina Calliope libris heroica mandat. Uranie ccrli niotus scrutatiir et astra. Signat cuncta maiui, loquitur Polyhymnia gestu. Mentis ApoUinece vis has movet undique musas, In medio residens complectitur omnia Pha;bus. — T. T H A L I A. 135 require the daughter of Amasis, that he might either suffer affliction from the loss of his chiki, or, by refusing to send her, provoke the resent- ment of Cambyscs. Amasis both dreaded and detested the power of Persia, and was unwilling to accept, though fearful of refusing, the over- ture. But he well knew that his daughter was not meant to be the mfe but the concubine of Cambyses, and therefore he determined on this mode of conduct: Apries, the former king, had left an only daugliter : her name was Nitetis', and she was possessed of much elegance and beauty. The king, having decorated her with great splendom- of dress, sent her into Persia as c Nifetis.] — Cambyses had not long been king, ere he re- solved upon a war with the Egyptians, by reason of some offence taken against Amasis their king. Herodotus tells us it was because Amasis, when he desired of him one of his daughters to wife, sent him a daughter of Apries instead of his own. But this could not be true, because, Apries having been dead above forty years before, no daughter of his could be young enough to be acceptable to Cambyses. — So far Pri- deaux. But Larcher endeavours to reconcile the apparent improbability, by saying that there is great reason to sup- pose that Apries lived a prisoner many years after Amasis dethroned him and succeeded to his power; and that there is no impossibility in the opinion that Nitetis might, there- fore, be no more than twenty or twenty-two years of age when she was sent to Cambyses. — T, Jablonski observes that these names of Nitetis, Nitocris, and the like, are derived from Neith, who was the Minerva of th€ ^Egyptians. 136 THALIA. his own child. Not long after, when Cambyses occasionally addressed her as the daughter of Amasis, " Sir," said she, " you are greatly mis- " taken, and Amasis has deceived you ; he has " adorned my person, and sent me to you as his " daughter ; but Apries was my father, whom •' Amasis, with his other rebellious subjects, dc- " throned and put to death." This speech and this occasion immediately prompted Cambyses in great wrath, to commence hostilities against jEgypt. — Such is the Persian account of the story. II. The ^Egyptians claim Cambyses as their own, by asserting that this incident did not hap- pen to him, but to Cyrus ^ from whom, and from this daughter of Apries, they say he was born'. This, however, is certainly not true. The iEgyp- tians are of all mankind the best conversant with 3 But to Cyrus.^ — They speak with more probability, who say it was Cyrus, and not Cambyses, to whom this daughter of Apries was sent. — Prideaux. * T/tei/ say he was born.] — Polya^nus, in his Stratagemata, relates the affair in this manner : — Nitetis, who was in re- ality the daughter of Apries, cohabited a long time with Cyrus as the daughter of Amasis. After having many chil- dren by Cyrus, she disclosed to him who she really was ; for though Amasis was dead, she wished to revenge herself on his son Psammenitus. Cyrus acceded to her wishes, but died in the midst of his preparations for an ^gj'ptian war. "his, Cambyses was persuaded by his mother to undertake, 3 revenged on the ^Egyptians the cause of the family of THALIA. 137 the Persian manners, and they must have known that a natural child could never succeed to the throne of Persia, while a legitimate one was alive. It was equally certain that Cambyses was not born of an ^Egyptian woman, but was the son of Cassandane, the daughter of Pharnaspc, of the race of the Acheemenides. This story, therefore, was invented by the .Egyptians, that they might from this pretence claim a connection with the house of Cyrus. III. Another story also is asserted, which to me seems improbable*. They say that a Persian lady once visiting the wives of Cyrus, saw stand- ing near their mother, the children of Cassandane, whom she complimented in high terms on their superior excellence of form and person. " Me," replied Cassandane, " who am the mother of " these children, Cyrus neglects and despises ; all " his kindness is bestowed on this Ji!,gyptian " female." This she said from resentment against Nitetis. They add that Cambyses, her eldest son, instantly exclaimed, " Mother, as soon as " I am a man, I will effect the utter destruction of iEgypt''." These words, from a prince w4io * This story, which Herodotus deems improbable, seems to me much the most likely to be true. ^ I -will effect the utter destruction of Mgiipt.'\-^lAitxB\\y,l will turn -^gypt upside down. M. Lar- 138 THALIA. who was then only ten years of age, surprized and delighted the women ; and as soon as he be- came r- man, and succeeded to the throne, he remembered the incident, and commenced hos- tilities against A^jgy])t. IV. He had another inducement to this under- taking. Among the auxiliaries of Amasis was a man named Phanes, a native of Halicarnassus, and greatly distinguished by his mental as well as military accomplishments. This person being, for I know not what reason, incensed against Amasis, fled in a vessel from Mgypi, to have a conference with Cambyses. As he possessed great influence among the auxiliaries, and was M. Larcher enumerates, from Athenseus, various and de- structive wars which had originated on account of women ; he adds, what a number of ilkistrious families had, from a similar cause, been utterly extinguished. The impression of this idea, added to the vexations which he had himself ex- perienced in domestic life, probably extorted from our great poet, Milton, the following energetic lines : Oh, why did God, Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven With spirits masculine, create at last This novelty on eartli, this fair defect Of nature, and not fill the world at once With men as angels, without feminine, Or find some other way to generate Mankind ? This mischief had nut then befall'n. And more that shall befall, innumerable Disturbances on earth through fvmalt snares ! — T. T II A L I A. 139 jjerfectly acquainted with the affairs of iEgypt, Amasis ordered him to be rigorously pursued, and for this purpose, equipped, under the care of the most faithful of his eunuchs, a three-banked galley. The pursuit was successful, and Phanes was taken in Lydia, but he was not carried back to JFjgyi^U for he circumvented his guards, and by making them drunk effected his escape. He fled instantly to Persia: Cambyses was then medi- tating the expedition against Mgypt, but was deterred by the difficulty of marching an army over the deserts, where so little water was to be procured. Phanes explained to the king all the concerns of Amasis; and to obviate the above difiiculty, advised him to send and ask of the king of the Arabs, a safe passage through his territories. V. This is indeed the only avenue by which ^gypt can possibly be entered. The whole country, from Phoenicia to Cadytis*, a city which belongs to the Syrians of Palestine f, and in my opinion equal to Sardis, together with all the * I have in another place supposed this place to be Jeru- salem. Wesselius thinks not; but my opinion is confirmed by Major Rennell, who gives it as his opinion, that Cadytis is synonymous with Al Kads, which means ihe huly. See Rennell, p. 683. t What the Greeks called Palestine, was by the Arabians named Falastin, which certainly is the Philistine of Sacred Scripture. 140 T H A L I A. commercial towns as far as Jciiysus", belong to the Arabians. This is also the case with that space of land -which extends from the Syrian Jenysus to the lake of Serbonis, from the vicinity of wliich, mount Casius^ stretches to the sea. At this lake, where, as was reported, Typhon was ojeni/sus.] — Stephanus Byzantinus calls this city Iiiys, (lor that is manifestly the name he gives it, if we take away the Greek termination): but Herodotus, from whom he borrows, renders it Jenis. It would have been more truly rendered Dorice Jaiiis, for that was nearer to the real name. The his- torian, however, points it out plainly by saying, that it was three days journey from mount Casius, and that the whole way was through the Arabian desert. — Bryant. Mr. Bryant is certainly mistaken with respect to the situ- ation of this place. It was an Arabian town, on this side lake Serbonis compared with Syria, on the other compared with iEgypt. When Herodotus says that this place was three days journey from mount Casius, he must be understood as speaking of the Syrian side; if otherwise, Cambyses could not have been so embarrassed from want of water, &c. — See Lurcher farther on this subject. Jenysus is recognized in the Khan Jones of Thevenot and others, and also in D'Anville. The lake Serbonis, like the Natron lake, appears to be filled up with sand. ' Mount Cfl«iMS,]— This place is now called by seamen mount Tenere. Here anciently was a temple sacred to Ju- piter Casius; in this" mountain also was Pompey the Great buried, as some aflirm, being murdered at its foot. This, however, is not true; his body was burnt on the shore by one of his frcedmen, with the planks of an old fishing-boat, and his ashes, being conveyed to Rome, were deposited pri- vately by his wife Cornelia in a vault of his Alban villa. — See 3Ji(l(ll(/on'.s Life of Ckcro.—'l'. T H A 1. I A. 141 concealed, j^gypt commences. This tract, wliicli comprehends the city Jenysus, mount Casius, and the lake of Serbonis, is of no trifling extent ; it is a three days journey over a very dry and parched desert. VI. I shall now explain what is known to very few of those who travel into /Egypt by sea. Twice in every year there are exported from different parts of Greece to iEgypt, and from Phoenicia in particular, wine secured in earthen jars, not one of which jars is afterwards to be seen. I shall describe to what purpose they are applied : the principal magistrate of every town is obliged to collect all the earthen vessels imported to the place where he resides, and send them to INIem- phis. The Memphians fill them witli water ^', and ^ With water.'] — The water of the Nile never becomes im- pure, whether reserved at home, or exported abroad. On boaid the vessels which pass from ^gypt to Italy, the water, which remains at the end of the voyage, is good, whilst what they happen to take in during their voyage corrupts. The Egyp- tians are the only people we know who preserve this water iu jars, as others do wine. They keep it three or four years, and sometimes longer, and the age of this water is with them an increase of its value, as the age of wine is elsewhere. — Aristides Orat. JEgyptiac. Modern writers and travellers are agreed about the excellence of the water of the Nile ; but the above assertion, with respect to its keeping, wants to be corroborated. Much the same, however, is said, and universally by mariners, respecting the water of the Thames. We 142 T IT A I. I A. afterwards transport tliem to the Syrian deserts. Thus all the earthen vessels carried into ^gypt, and tlicre carefully collected, are continually added to those already in Syria. VII, Such are the means which the Persians have constantly adopted to provide themselves with water in these deserts, from the time that they were first masters of iEgypt, But as, at the time of which I speak, they had not this resource, Cambyses listened to the advice of his Halicar- nassian guest, and solicited of the Arabian prince a safe passage through his territories ; which was granted, after mutual promises of friendship. VIII. These are the ceremonies which the Ara- bians observe when they make alliances, of which no people in the world are more tenacious ''. On We learn from Diodorus Siculus, b. xix. c. 6, that the people whom he calls Nabalheans preserved rain-water in vessels of earth. These were deposited beneath the earth, and considered as a reservoir from which the water wanted for common use was taken. 9 Te7iacwus.'\ — How faithful the Arabs are at this day, when they have pledged themselves to be so, is a topic of admiration and of praise with all modern travellers. They who once put themselves under their protection have no- thing afterwards to fear ; for their word is sacred. Singular as the mode here described of forming alliances may appear to an English reader, that of taking an oath by putting the THALIA. 143 these occasions some one connected with both parties stands betwixt them, and with a sharp stone opens a vein of the hand, near the middle finger, of those who are about to contract. He then takes a piece of the vest of each person, and dips it in their blood, with w^hich he stains several stones purposely placed in the midst of the as- sembly, invoking, during the process, Bacchus and Urania. When this is finished, he who soli- cits the compact to be made, pledges his friends for the sincerity of his engagements to the stranger or citizen, or whoever it may happen to be ; and all of them conceive an indispensable necessity to exist, of performing what they promise. Bac- chus and Urania are the only deities whom they venerate. They cut off their hair round their temples, from the supposition that Bacchus wore hand under the thigh, in use amongst the patriarchs, was surely not less so. " Abraham said unto the eldest servant of his house that ruled over all that he had ; Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh." Gen. xxiv. 2.— T. The following interesting anecdote is from Denon : A French officer had been several months prisoner to a chief of the Arabs, whose camp was surprized in the night by our cavalry, and who had barely time to escape, his tents, cattle, and provisions having fallen into our hands. On the following day, fugitive, solitary, and without any resources, he drew from his pocket a cake, and, presenting the half of it to his prisoner, said to him, " I do not know when we shall have any more food : but I shall not be accused of having refused to share my last morsel with one whom I esteem as my friend." 144 THALIA. liis in that form ; liini they call Urotalt ; Urania has the name of Alilat '*'. IX. Wlien the Arabian prince had made an alliance witli the messengers of Camhyscs, he or- dered all his camels to be laden with camel-skins filled with water, and to be driven to the deserts, there to w^ait the arrival of Cambyscs and his army. Of this incident, the above seems to me the more probable narrative. There is also ano- ther, which however I may disbelieve, I think I ought not to omit. In Arabia is a large river called Corys, which loses itself in the Red Sea : from this river, the Arabian is said to have formed a canal of the skins of oxen and other animals sewed toii'cther, which was continued to the above- mentioned deserts, where he also sunk a number of cisterns to receive the water so introduced. From the river to the desert is a journey of twelve days ; and they say that the water was conducted by three distinct canals into as many different places.* "^ jllilat.] — According to Selden, in his treatise De Diis Syris, the Mitra of the Persians is the same with the Ahtta or Alilat of the Arahians. In this term Alilat we douhtless re- cognize the Allah of the modern Arabians. * This last account exceeds all possibility of belief. The first drinkable water between the desert here mentioned, and vf.gypt, is at Salahiah. This, therefore, is the key of iEgypt on this side, and here, of course, the French established a mi- litary post. We have yet to learn what arrangements were made by Bonaparte to obtain water in crossing the desert. But the task must be much easier from the side of /Egypt, than Irom that of Syria. T H A L I A. 145 X. At the Pelusian mouth of the Nile, Psam- mciiitus, the son of Amasis, was encamped, and expected Cambyses m arms. Amasis himself, after a reign of forty-four years, died before Cambyses had advanced to iEgypt, and during the whole enjoyment of his power, he expe- rienced no extraordinary calamity. At his death his body was embalmed, and deposited in a sepulchre which he had erected for himself in the temple of Minerva ". During the reign of his son Psammenitus, iEgypt beheld a most re- markable prodigy ; there was rain at the ^^gyp- tian Thebes, a circumstance which never hap- pened before, and whicli, as the Thebans them- selves assert, has never occurred since. In the higlier parts of iEgypt it never rains, but at that period we read it rained at Thebes in distinct drops ''. ^^ Temple of Minerva.] — Minerva is not expressed in the original text, but it was evident that it is in the temple of ]Minerva, from chap, clxix. of the second book, — T. ^" III distinct drops.] — Herodotus is perhaps thus particular, to distinguish rain from mist. Denon, when in the neighbourhood of Lycopolis, thus ex- presses himself: We found several roads marked out, which convinced us that they might with a very little expense be made excellent, and most completely durable, in a country like this, where neither rain nor frost are ever seen. It is a little remarkable that all the mention which Herodo- tus makes of the ancient Thebes, is in this passage, and in this slight mann r. In book ii. chap. xv. he informs us that all iEgypt was foimerly called Thebes. — T. Vol. II. L 14G THALIA. XI. The Persians luiviiig passed tlie deserts, fixed their camp opposite to the ^'Egyptians, as if with the design of offering tliein ]}attle. The Greeks and Carians, who were tlie confederates of the il^gyptians, to shew tlieir resentment against Phanes, for introducing a foreign army against iJigypt, adopted this expedient : they brought liis sons, wliom he had left behind, into tlie camp, and in a conspicuous place, and in tlie sight of their father, they put them one by one to death upon a vessel brought thither for that purpose. When they had done tliis, they filled the vase which had received the blood with wine and water ; having drank which '\ all the ^^ Having drank wliicJt.] — They probably swore at the same time to avenge the treason of Phanes, or perish. The blood of an human victim mixed with wine accompanied the most solemn forms of execration among the ancients. Catiline made use of this superstition to bind his adherents to secresy : " lie carried round," says Sallust, " the blood of an human victim, mixed with wine ; and when all had tasted it, after a set form of execration (sicut in solennibus sacris fieri consuevit) he im- parted his design." — T. Xenophon describes the ceremonies observed by the Greeks and Persians on their agreeing to become allies and friends. They sacrificed a boar, a bull, a wolf, and a ram ; they mixed their blood together in the hollow part of a shield, after which the Persians dipped a spear into it, and the Greeks a sword. See the Anabasis, b. ii. A very extraor- dinary form of oath is described in Ysbrant Ide's Voyage from Russia to China. Arriving among the Tungusian Tar- THALIA. 147 auxiliaries immediately engaged the enemy. The battle was obstinately disputed, but after consider- able loss on both sides, the v^gyptians fled. XII. By the people inhabiting the place where this battle was fought, a very surprizing thing was pointed out to my attention. The bones of those who fell in the engagement were soon after- wards collected, and separated into two distinct heaps. It was observed of the Persians, that their heads were so extremely soft as to yield to the slight impression even of a pebble ; those of the ^Egyptians, on the contrary, were so firm, that the blow of a large stone could hardly break tars, two of them fell out, when one of them accused the other before the magistrate of having angered his deceased brother to death. The waywode (magistrate) asked the accuser if he would, according to the Tungusian custom, put the accused to his oath ? To this he answered in the af- firmative. The accused then took a live dog, laid him on the ground, and with a knife stuck him into the body, just under his left foot, and immediately applied his mouth to the wound, and sucked out the dog's blood, as long as he could get any. He then lifted him up, laid him on his shoulders, and clapped his mouth again to the wound, to suck the re- maining blood. This is the greatest oath, and most solemn mode of confirmation among these people. It is a very curious circumstance, that among so many nations of the world, divided by distance, and contrasted in other respects by manners, the spilling of blood should be thought an indibpensable act in confirmation of an oath. — T. L 2 14S T H A L 1 A. them. The reason which they gave for this was very satisfactory — tlie .ligyptians from a very early age shave their lieads '\ which by being con- stantly exposed to the action of the sun, become firm and hard ; tliis treatment also prevents bald- ness, very few instances of which are ever to be seen in ^gypt. Why the skulls of the Persians are so soft may be explained from their being from their infancy accustomed to shelter them from the sun, by the constant use of tiu-bans. I made the very same remark at Paprcmis, after examining the bones of those w^ho, undcM' the con- duct of Achaemenes'^ son of Darius, were defeat- ed by Tnarus the African. XI IT. The Egyptians after their defeat fled in great disorder to Memphis. Cambyses dis- 1* Shave their heocls.] — The same custom still subsists : I liave seen every where the children of the common people, whether running in the fields, assembled round the villages, or swimming in the waters, with their heads shaved and bare. Let us but imagine the hardness a skull must acquire thus ex- posed to the scorching sun, and we shall not be astonished at the remark of Herodotus. — Savari/. 15 Ach(er)ienes.] — Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus say, that it was Acha?menes, the brother of Xerxes, and uncle of Artaxerxes, the same who before had the government of ^.gypt in the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, that had the conduct of this war; but herein they were deceived by the similitude of names ; for it appears by Ctesias, that he was the son of Hamestris, whom Artaxerxes sent with his army into .Egynt. — Prulcoux. T H A L I A. 149 patclicd a Persian up the river in a Mitylenian vessel to treat with them ; but as soon as they saw the vessel enter Memphis, they rushed in a crowd from the citadel, destroyed the vessel, tore the crew in pieces '", and afterwards carried them into the citadel. Siege was immediately laid to the place, and the Egyptians were finally com- pelled to surrender. Those Africans who lived nearest to /Egypt, apprehensive of a similar fate, submitted without contest, imposing a tribute on themselves, and sending presents to the Persians. Their example was followed by tlie Cyreneans and Barceans, who were struck with the like panic. Cambyses received the African presents very graciously, but he expressed much resent- ment at those of the Cyreneans, as I think, on account of their meanness. They sent him five hundred minae of silver, which, as soon as he received, with his own hands he threw amongst his soldiers. XIV. On the tenth day after the surrender of the citadel of Memphis, Psammenitus, the iEgyp- tian king, who had reigned no more than six 16 Tore the crew in piecesJ] — They were two hundred in number; this appears from a following paragraph, where we find that for every Mitylenian massacred on this occasion ten Egyptians were put to death, and that two thousand jEgyptians thus perished. — Lardicr. 150 THALIA. months, was by order of Cambyses ignomiiiiously conducted, with other /Egyptians, to the outside of the walls, and by way of trial of his dispo- sition, thus treated : His daughter, in the habit of a slave, was sent with a pitcher to draw water ; she was accompanied by a number of young women clothed in the same garb, and selected from families of the first distinction. They passed, with much and loud lamentation, before their parents, from whom their treatment excited a correspondent violence of grief. But when Psam- menitus beheld the spectacle, he merely declined his eyes upon the ground. When this train was gone by, the son of Psammenitus, with two thou- sand ^I'^gyptians of the same age, were made to walk in procession, with ropes round their necks, and bridles in their mouths. These were intended to avenge the death of those ISIitylcnians who, with their vessel, had been torn to pieces at Memphis. The king's counsellors had deter- mined that for every one put to death on that occasion, ten of the highest rank of the Egyp- tians should be sacrificed. Psammenitus ob- served these as they passed, but although he per- ceived that his son was going to be executed, and whilst all the ^Egyptians around him wept and lamented aloud, he continued unmoved as before. AA^hen this scene also disai)peacd, he beheld a venerable ])ersonage, who had formerly partaken of the royal table, deprived of all he had pos- THALIA. 151 sessed, and in the dress of a mendicant asking charity through the different ranks of the army. This man stopped to beg an alms of Psamme- uitus, the son of Amasis, and of the other noble ^Egyptians who were sitting with him ; which when Psammenitus beheld, he could no longer suppress his emotions, but calling on his friend by name, wept aloud ^', and beat his head. This the sjnes, who were placed near him to observe his conduct on each incident, reported to Cam- byses ; who, in astonishment at such behaviour, sent a messenger, who was thus directed to ad- dress him, " Your lord and master, Cambyses, " is desirous to know why, after beholding with " so much indifference your daughter treated as " a slave, and your son conducted to death, you " expressed so lively a concern for that mcndi- 17 Wept aloud.] — A very strange effect of grief is related by Mr. Gibbon, in the story of Gelimer, king of the Vandals, when after an obstinate resistance he was obliged to surrender himself to Belisarius. " The first public interview," says our historian, " was in one of the suburbs of Carthage ; and when the royal captive accosted his conqueror, he burst into a fit of laughter. The crowd might naturally believe that extreme giief had deprived Gelimer of his senses; but in this mournful state unseasonable mirth insinuated to more intelligent observers that the vain and transitory scenes ot human greatness are unworthy of a serious thought." All that can be said in answer to Gibbon's remark is, that Psammenitus acted like a man ; Gelimer like a barbarian idiot. 15^ THALIA. " cant, who, as he has been mformed, is not at " all related to you?' Psammenitus made this reply : " Son of Cyrus, my domestic misfortunes " were too great to suffer me to shed tears'"; " but it was consistent that I should weep for *' my friend, who, from a station of honour and " of wealth, is in the last stage of life reduced " to penury. " Cambyses heard and was satisfied with his answer. The ^Egyptians say that CrcKsus, who attended Cambyses in this ^Egyptian expe- dition, wept at the incident*. The Persians also 18 Shed tears.'\ — -This idea of extreme affliction or anger tending to check the act of weeping, is expressed by Shake- speare with wonderful sublimity and pathos. It is part of a speech of Lear : You see me here, ye gods, a poor old man, As full of grief as age, wretched in both. If it be you that stir these daughters hearts Against their father, fool me not so much To bear it tamely : Touch me with noble anger, And let nut women's weapons, water drops. Stain my man's cheeks. No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both That all the world shall 1 will do such things, What they are yet I know not, but they shall be The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep — No, 1 '11 not weep. I have full cause of weeping ; But this heart shall break into a hundred thousand flaws Or e'er I weep. T. * It might have been reasonably supposed that the lessons which Cambyses had immediately before him, would have inspired bis heart with some sentiments of humanity, and THALIA. 15S who were present were exceedingly moved, and Cambyses himself yielded so far to compassion, that he ordered the son of Psammenitus to be pre- served out of those who had been condemned to die, and Psammenitus himself to be conducted from the place where he was, to his presence. XV. The emissaries employed for the purpose found the young prince had suffered first, and was already dead ; the father, they led to Cam- byses, with whom he afterwards lived, and re- ceived no farther ill-treatment ; and, could he have refrained from ambitious attempts, would probably have been intrusted with the government of ^.gypt. The Persians hold the sons of sove- reigns in the greatest reverence, and even if the fathers revolt, they will permit the sons to succeed to their authority ; that such is really their con- duct may be proved by various examples. Than- nyras the son of Inarus ^ *, received the kingdom afforded him a warning of the fallibility of human greatness. The degradation of Croesus, and the miserable end of his father Cyrus, might have suggested some disposition to pity, and some warning of the policy of forbearance. But it must be remembered, that the salutary influence of Christianity was then unknown, and the emotions of false pride and false ambi- tion had no check from the idea of a state of future retribution, 19 Inarus.] — The revolt of Inarus happened in the hrst year of the 80th Olympiad, 460 before the Christian a^ra. lie rebelled against Artaxerxes Longimanus, and with the 154 T 11 A L I A. ^vhicIl his father governed ; Pausiris calso, the son of Amyrtaius, was permitted to reign after his father, although the Persians had never met with more obstinate enemies than both Inarus and Amyrtasus. Psammenitus revolted, and suffered for his offence : he was detected in stirring up the ^Egyptians to rebel ; and being convicted by Cambyses, was made to drink a quantity of bul- lock's blood ", which immediately occasioned his death. — Such was the end of Psammenitus.* assistance of the Athenians, defied the power of Persia for nearly five years. After he was reduced, Amyrta'us held out for some time longer in the marshy country. — The particulars may be found in the first book of Thucydides, chap. civ. &c. "° Bullock's bluoil.^ — Bull's blood, taken fresh from the ani- mal, was considered by the ancients as a powerful poison, and supposed to act by coagulating in the stomach. Themistocles, and several other personages of antiquity, were said to have died by taking it. — See Plut. in Themist. and Pliny, book xxviii. eh. ix. Aristophanes, in the 'linni'j, alludes to this account of the death of Themistocles. IMXtkttou t'jjiih' uTf^ia ruvpeiov tticIv, 'O Qnf-iiaTOKXitx; yap Qdvaroi; aipiTuTspoij. * I cannot deny myself the satisfaction of transcribing the substance of Lurcher's remarks on this chapter. The following expressions concerning ^Egypt occur in Eze- kiel, c. XXX. v. 13. " Thus saith the Lord God; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph ; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of iEgypt: and I will put a fear in the land ol .Egypt." This prophecy, observes Laithtr, has been literally ful- THALIA. ' 155 XVI. From Sais, Cambyscs proceeded to ^Mempliis, to execute a purpose lie had hi view. As soon as he entered the palace of Amasis, he ordered the body of that prince to be removed from his tomb. When this was done, he com- manded it to be beaten with rods, the hair to be plucked out, and the Hesh to be goaded with sharp instruments, to which he added other marks of ignominy. As the body was embalmed, their efforts made but little inipression ; when therefore they were fatigued with these outrages, he or- dered it to be burned. In this last act, Cam- byscs paid no regard to the religion of his coun- try, for the Persians venerate fire as a divinity'"\ filled. iEgypt, on the death of Psammenitus, passed under the dominion of the Persians. The Greeks afterwards subdued it, and after them the Romans. The Arabians conquered it from the Romans, and after the Arabians, the Saracens and Mame- lukes have had possession of it. The authority of the Grand Signior is merely nominal ; foj-, on the invasion of the French, it was governed by the Beys. In addition to Larcher's remarks, it may now be observed, that the present condition of ^gypt exhibits a still more lite- ral fulfilment of Ezekiel's prediction. ci Venerate Jirt as a dixiitih/.] — -This expression must not be understood in too rigorous a sense. Fire was certainly regarded by the Persians as something sacred, and perhaps they might render it some kind of religious worship, which in its origin referred only to the deity, of which this element was an emblem. But it is certain that this nation did not believe fire to be a deity, otherwise how would they have dared to have extinguished it throughout Persia, on the 156 THALIA. The custom of burning the dead does not prevail in cither of the two nations ; for the reason above mentioned, the Persians do not use it, thinking it profane to feed a divinity with human carcasses ; and the ^Egyptians abhor it, being fully persuaded that fire is a voracious animal, which devours whatever it can seize, and when saturated finally expires with w^hat it has con- sumed. They hold it unlawful to expose the bodies of the dead ' to any animals, for which death of the sovereign, as we learn from Diodorus Siculus ? — See an epigram of Dioscorides, Brunk's Analecta, vol. i. 503. — hardier. According to Diodorus Siculus, the Egyptians venerated fire as a divinity, under the name of Ilephaistus. His words are these; " The Egyptians considered fire, to which they gave the name of Ilephaistus, as a Greek deity {jxtyav Qaor)." L. 1. It was one of the distinctions of the Persian sovereigns to have fire carried before them on an altar. This custom was borrowed by the llomsins of the Persians, and accordingly we * find that the Roman Emperors had fire carried before them. There is a dissertation on this ancient custom in the Memoires de I'Academie des Belles Lettres, v. xxxi, p. 155. 22 Bodies of the dead.'] — ^Ve learn from Xenophon, that the interment of bodies was common in Greece ; and Homer tells us that the custom of burning the dead was in use before the Trojan war. It is therefore probable that both customs were practised at the same time ; this was also the case at Rome, as appears from many ancient monuments : the custom, however, of interment, seems to have preceded that of burn- ing. " At mihi quidem antiquissimum sepultura; genus id fuisse videtur quo apud Xeuophontem Cyrus utitur. Red- THALIA. 157 reason they embalm them, fearing lest, after in- terment, they might become the prey of worms *. The ^Egyptians assert, that the above indignities were not inflicted upon the body of Amasis, but ditur enim terras corpus, et ita locatum et situm quasi operi- mento matris obducitur." — Cicero de legibus, lib. ii.'22. " That seems to me to have been the most ancient kind of burial, which, according to Xenophon, was used by Cyrus. For the body is returned to the earth, and so placed as to be covered with the veil of its mother." The custom of burning at Rome, according to Montfaucon, ceased about the time of Theodosius the younger. Sylla was the first of the Cornelian family whose body was burnt, whence some have erroneously advanced that he was the first Roman ; but both methods are mentioned in the laws of the Twelve Tables, and appear to have been equally pre- valent. After Sylla, burning became general. — T. * The ancients had great horror at the idea of not receiving the rites of burial. When Ulysses visited the infernal regions, he is made to say: There, wandering thro' the gloom, I first survey'd, New to the realms of death, Elpenor's shade; His cold remains, all naked to the sky. On distant shores, unwept, unburied lie. The ghost implores of Ulysses the rites of sepulture, in these pathetic strains : But lend me aid, I now conjure thee lend, By the soft tie and sacred name of friedn ; By thy fond consort, by thy father's cares, By lov'd Telemachus's blooming years. ********* The tribute of a tear is all I crave. And the possession of a peaceful grave. 158 T H A L I A. w that the Persians were deceived, and perpetrated tliese insults on some other ^Egyptian of the same age with that prince. Amasis, they say, was informed by an oracle of the injuries in- tended against his body, to prevent which he ordered the person who really sustained them, to be buried at the entrance of his tomb, whilst he himself, by his own directions given to his son, was placed in some secret and interior recess of the scpulclire. These assertions I cannot al- together believe, and am rather inclined to impute them to the vanity of the >TAgyptians. XVII. Cambyses afterwards determined to commence hostilities asrainst three nations at once, the Carthaginians, the Ammonians, and the Macrobian* yKthiopians, who inhabit that part of Libya whicli lies towards the southern ocean. He accordingly resolved to send against the Carthaginians a naval armament ; a detach- ment of his troops was to attack the Ammonians by land ; and he sent spies into .I'thiopia, who, under pretence of carrying presents to the prince, were to ascertain the reality of the celebrated table of the sun ', and to examine the condition of the country. * i. c. long-lived. -^ Table of the «««.] — Solinus speaks of this table of tlio sun as something marvellous, ami Pomponius Mela seems to THALIA. 159 XVIII. What tlicy called the tahle of the sun was this : — A plain in the vicinity of the city was filled to the height of four feet with the roasted flesh of all kinds of animals, which was carried there in the night, under the inspection of the magistrates ; during the day whoever pleased was at liberty to go and satisfy his hunger. The na- tives of the place affirm, that the earth sponta- neously produces all these viands : this, however, is what they term the table of the sun. XIX. As soon as Cambyses had resolved on the measures he meant to pursue, with respect to the iEthiopians, he sent to the city of Elephantine, for some of the Tchthyophagi who were skilled in their language. In the mean time he directed his naval forces to proceed against the Cartha- mnians ; but the Phoenicians refused to assist him in this purpose, pleading the solemnity of have had the same idea. Pausanias considers what was re- ported of it as fabulous. " If," says he, " we credit all these marvels on the faith of the Greeks, we ought also to receive as true what the ^Ethiopians above Syene relate of the table of the sun." Jn adhering to the recital of Hero- dotus, a considerable portion of the marvellous disappears. — liarclier. The explanation of Vossius may be admitted. As the light of the sun v;as for the common benefit of mankind, so was this table for the benefit of all the Ethiopians. It seems very probable that the well-known fable of the gods going to visit the Ethiopians for twelve days, had its origin in the sacrifice to the sun, which is here recorded. IGO T II A L I A. their cngaf^cmcnts with that people, and the im- piety of coniinitting acts of violence against their own descendants. — Such was the conduct of the Phoenicians, and the other armaments were not powerful enough to proceed. Thus, therefore, the Carthaginians escaped being made tributary to Persia, for Cambyses did not choose to use compulsion with the Phanicians, who had volun- tarily become his dependants, and who consti- tuted the most essential part of his naval power. The Cyprians had also submitted without contest to the Persians, and had served in the ^Egyptian expedition. XX. As soon as the Ichthyophagi* arrived from Elepliantine, Cambyses dispatched them to .l^thiopia. They were commissioned to deliver, with certain presents, a particular message to the prince. The presents consisted of a purple vest, a gold chain for the neck, bracelets, an alabaster box of perfumes'*, and a cask of pahn wine.f The ^Ethiopians to whom Cambyses sent, are * Tlie Ichthyophagi are not distinctly marked in ancient writers. There were people thus denominated in Gadrasia, as well as on the coasts of Arabia and Africa. See Vincent's Periplus. i* Alaliuater box uf pcrfu7ries.] — It seems probable that per- fumes ill more ancient tinies were kept in shells. Arabia is the country of perfumes, and the Red Sea tlirows upon the t I"or this note, sec the next page. T II A I. I A. 161 reported to be superior to all other men in the perfections of size and beauty : their manners coast a number of large and beautiful shells, very convenient for such a purpose. — See Horace: Funde caparibus Unguentade concbis. That to' make a present of perfumes was deemed a mark of reverence and honour in the remotest times amongst the Ori- entals, appears from the following passage in Daniel : " Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours to him." This offering to Daniel is considered by some as a sacrifice to a deity. See also St. Mark, xiv. 3 : " There came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious ; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head." See also Matth. xxvi. 7. To sprinkle the apartments and the persons of the guests with rose-water, and other aromatics, still continues in the East to be a mark of respectful attention. Aluhastron did not properly signify a vessel made of the stone now called alabaster, but one without handles, ^v ly^ov Alabaster obtained its name from being frequently used for this purpose ; the ancient name for the stone was ala- basfrites, and perfumes were thought to keep better in it than in any other substance. Pliny has informed us of the shape of these vessels, by comparing to them the pearls called elenchi, which are known to have been shaped like pears, or, as he expresses it, fastigiata longitudine, alabas- trorum figura, in pleniorem orbem desinentes ; lib. ix. cap. 35.-7'. t Palm wine,] — Larcher observes that Herodotus no where ^'or.. II. M 1G2 THALIA. and customs, vvhicli differ also from those of all otlicr nations, have, besides, this singular distinc- tion ; the supreme authority is given to him who excels all his fellow citizens "^ in size and propor- tionable strength. XXI. The Ichthyophagi on their arrival offered the presents, and thus addressed the king ; " Cam- " byses, sovereign of Persia, from his anxious " desire of becoming your friend and ally, has " sent us to communicate with you, and to de- " sire your acceptance of these presents, from " the use of which he himself derives the greatest " pleasure." The /Ethiopian prince, who was aware of the object they had in view, made them this answer : — " The king of Persia has not sent " you with these presents, from any desire of ob- tlistinguishes the clifTerent wines he mentions by the name of the pUices which produced them, but the articles of which they are made. Thus, in the second book, he speaks of wine of barley ; in the fourth book, of wine of the lotos, wine of the vine, and wine of palms, dates, &c. ; which latter wine is at this day the ordinary beverage of the Oriental?, -* JFho exrcLs till his fdluxo citizens, SfcJ] — That the quality of strength and accomplishments of persons were, in the first institution of society, the principal reconmiendations to l]onour, is thus represented by Lucretius : Condere c(r])erunt urbeis, arcemque locare Pra^sidium reges ipsi sibi perfugiumque • Et pecudes et agros diviscre atque dedere Pro facie cuj usque, et viribus ingenioque, Nam facies multum vaUiit, viresque vigebant. — 'F. T H A L I A. 1C3 " taining my alliance ; neither do yon speak the ** truth, who, to facilitate the unjust designs of " your master, are come to examine the state of " my dominions : if he were influenced by prin- " ciples of integrity, he would be satisfied with " his own, and not covet the possessions of " another ; nor would he attempt to reduce those " to servitude from whom he has received no " injury. Give him therefore this bow, and in " my name speak to him thus : The king of " Ethiopia sends this coimsel to the king of " Persia — when his subjects shall be able to " bend this bow with the same ease that I do, " then with a superiority of numbers he may " venture to attack the JNIacrobian Ethiopians. " In the mean time let him be thankful to the " gods, that the .^Ethiopians have not been in- " spired with the same ambitious views of ex- " tending their possessions." XXII. When he had finished, he unbent the bow*, and placed it in their hands; after which, * It is surprizing to see how much Mr. Bruce talks at ran- dom on the subject of this historical anecdote; in all of which, these two words of Herodotus refute him. Bruce tells a long story of a custom of the Shangallas, whom he will call the Macrobians, which consisted in hang- ing upon their bows a ring from the skins of the different ani- mals they kill, till the bow entirely loses its elasticity, and cannot be used. It was one of these inflexible bows, says M 2 164, T H A L I A. taking the purple vest, he enquired wliat it was, and how it was made : the Ichthyophagi properly explained to him the process by which the purple tincture was communicated ; but he told them that they and their vests were alike deceitful. He then made similar enquiries concerning the bracelets and the gold chains for the neck : upon their describing the nature of those ornaments, he laughed, and conceiving them to be chains '°, he, which the Ethiopian prince sent to Cambyses. Instead of this, Herodotus says, " the prince unbent the bow," &c. &c. I can hardly wonder that Larcher should speak of Bruce wilh such severity, having had myself frequent occasion to reproach him with haste and inaccuracy. -^ Conceiting than to he chains.'] — We learn from a passage in Genesis, xxiv. 22, that the bracelets of the Orientals were remarkably heavy ; which seems in some measure to justify the sentiment of the /Ethiopian prince, who thought them chains simply because they were made of gold, which was used for that purpose in his country. — See chap, xxiii. " And it came to pass as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden ear-ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands, of ten shekels weight of gold." That the bracelet was formerly an ensign of royalty amongst the Orientals, JNIr. Ilarmer, in his Observations on Passages of .Scripture, infers from the circumstance of the Amalekite's bringing to David the bracelet which he found on Saul's arm, along with his crown. That it was a mark of dignity there can be little doubt ; but it by no means follows that it was a mark of royalty, though the remark is certainly THALIA. 165 remarked, that the ^Ethiopians possessed much stronger. He proceeded lastly to ask them the use of the perfumes ; and when they informed him how they were made and applied, he made the same observation as he had before done of the purple robe■^ When he came to the wine, ingenious. If it was, there existed a peculiar propriety in making it the part of a present from one prince to another. By the Roman generals they were given to their soldiers, as a reward of bravery. Small chains were also in the remotest times worn round the neck, not only by women but by the men. That these were also worn by princes, appears from Judges, viii. 26. " And the weight of the golden ear-rings that he requested, was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold ; beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of INIidian ; and beside the chains that were about their camels' necks." Which last circumstance tends also to prove that they thus also decorated the animals they used ; which fashion is to this day observed by people of distinction in JEgypt.—T. ^"^ Purple robe.'] — It is a circumstance well known at prcr sent, that on the coast of Guagaquil, as well as on that of Guatima, are found those snails which yield the purple dye so celebrated by the ancients, and which the moderns have supposed to have been lost. The shell that contains them is fixed to rocks that are watered by the sea ; it is of the size of a large nut. The juice may be extracted from the animal in two ways ; some persons kill the animal after they have taken it out of the shell, they then press it from the head to the tail with a knife, and, separating from the body that part in which the liquor is collected, they throw away the rest. When this operation, repeated upon several of the snails, hath yielded a certain quantity of the juice, the thread that 166 T H ALIA. and learned liow it was made, he drank it with particular satisiiiction ; and enquired upon what food the Persian monarch subsisted, and what was the longest period of a Persian's life. The king, they told him, lived chiefly upon bread ; and they then described to him the properties of corn : they added, that the longest period of life in Persia was about eighty years. " I am not at " all surprized," said the ^Ethiopian prince, " that, " subsisting on dung, the term of life is so short " among them ; and unless," he continued, point- ing to the wine, " they mixed it with this liquor, " they would not live so long :" for in this he allowed that they excelled the ^Ethiopians. XXIII. The Ichthyophagi in their turn ques- tioned the prince concerning the duration of life in j^T^thiopia, and the kind of food there in use : They were told, that the majority of the people lived to the age of one hundred and twenty years, but tliat some exceeded even that period ; that is to be dyed is dipped in it, and the business is done. The colour, which is at first as white as milk, becomes afterwards green, and does not turn purple till the thread is dry. We know of no colour that can be compared to the one we have been speaking of, either in lustre or in permanency. — RayiuiL I'liny describes the purpura as a turbinated shell like the buccinum, but with spines upon it ; which may lead us to suspect the Abbe's account of the snails of a liltk inaccu- '"7* racy.— 7. T H A L I A. 167 their meat was baked flesh*, their drink milk. When the spies expressed astonishment at the length of life in .Ethiopia, they were conducted to a certain fountain, in which having bathed, they became shining as if anointed with oil, and emitted from their bodies the perfume of violets f . But they asserted that the water of this fountain was of so insubstantial a nature, that neither wood, nor any thing still lighter than wood, would float upon its surface, but every thing in- stantly sunk to the bottom. If their repre- sentation of this water was true, the constant use of it may probably explain the extreme length of life which the iEthiopians attain. From the fountain they were conducted to the * This is the second place in which Herodotus asserts that these ^Ethiopians lived on baked or roasted flesh ; never- theless, Bruce, with his accustomed carelessness and inac- curacy, affirms, as if from our historian, that they lived on raw flesh, which, he adds, they continue to do to this very day. t Cada Mosto, who made a voyage to Senegal in the year 1435, affirms that the natives made use of a certain oil in the preparation of their victuals, which possessed a three- fold property ; that of smelling like violets, tasting like oil of olives, and of tinging the victuals with a colour more beau- tiful than saffron. The present inhabitants of this part of Africa extract an oil from the kernels of the palm-nuts; this is used for the same purposes as the palm-oil, but, as Dr. Winterbottom observes, more nearly resembles butter, as it has no smell. 1()8 T li A L I A. public prison, where all that were confined \vcro secured by chains of gold ; for among these ^Ethio- pians, brass is the rarest of all the metals. After visiting the prison they saw also what is called the table of the sun. XXIV. Finally they were shewn the iEthio- pian coffins ', which are said to be constructed 28 Coffins.] — Coffins, though anciently used in the East, and considered as marks of distinction, are not now there appHed to the dead either by Turks or Christians. " With us," says INIr. Ilarmer, in his Observations on Pas- sages of Scripture, " the poorest people have their coffins : if the relations cannot afford them, the parish is at the ex- pense. In the East, on the contrary, they are not now at all made use of. Turks and Christians, Thevenot assures us, agree in this. The ancient Jews probably buried their dead in the same manner : neither was the body of our Lord, it should seem, put into a coffin, nor that of Elisha, whose bones were touched by the corpse that was let down a little after into his sepulchre ; 2 Kings, xiii. 21. That they, how- ever, were anciently made use of in yEgypt all agree ; and antique coffins, of stone and sycamore wood, are still to be seen in that country, not to mention those said to be made of a kind of pasteboard, formed by folding and glueing cloth together a great number of times, \vhich were curiously plastered, and then painted with hieroglyphics. Its being an ancient ^Egyptian custom, and its not being used in the neighbouring countries, were doubtless the cause that the sacred historian expressly observes of Joseph, that he was not only embalmed, but put into a coffin too, both being ma- nagements peculiar in a manner to the ^Egyptians." — Okscna- tions on Passages of Scripture, vol. ii. 1.54. Mr. Ilarmer's observation in the foregoing note is not THALIA. 1G9 of crystal, and in this manner : — After all the moisture is exhausted from the body, by the strictly true. The use of coffins might very probably be un- known in Syria, from whence Joseph came ; but that they were used by all nations contiguous on one side at least to ^gypt, the passage before us proves suffigiently. I have not been able to ascertain at what period the use of coffins was introduced in this country, but it appears from the following passage of our celebrated antiquary, Mr. Strutt, that from very remote times our ancestors were interred in some kind of coffin. " It was customary in the Christian burials of the Anglo Saxons to leave the head and shoulders of the corpse uncovered till the time of burial, that relations, Sec. might take a last view of their deceased friend." We have also the following in Durant, " Corpus totum at sudore ob- volutum ac loculo conditum vetercs in coenacuhs, seu tricliniis exponebant." We learn from a passage in Strabo, that there was a tem- ple at Alexandria, in which the body of Alexander was de- posited, in a coffin of gold ; it was stolen by Seleucus Cy- biosactes, who left a coffin of glass in its place. This is the only author, except Herodotus, in whom I can remember to have seen mention made of a coffin of glass. The urns of ancient Rome, in which the ashes of the dead were depo- sited, were indifferently made of gold, silver, brass, alabaster, porphyry, and marble ; these were externally ornamented according to the rank of the deceased. A minute descrip- tion of these, with a multitude of specimens, may be seen in 'ISIontfaucon. — T. On the subject of the leaden coffins of the Saxons, see Cough's Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain ; Intro- duction, p. 1 1. One reason for not having coffins in the East, may be the ^quickness of interment, and the cool retreats in which the bodies were deposited, at a distance from the towns. 170 T 11 A L I A. ^Egyptian or some otlicr process, tlicy cover it totally with a kind of plaster, which they adorn with various colours, and make it exhibit as near a resemblance as may be, of the person of the deceased. They then inclose it in a hollow pillar of crystal ''^, which is dug up in great abundance, and of a kind that is easily worked. The de- ceased is very conspicuous through the crystal, has no disagreeable smell, nor any thing else that is offensive. The nearest relations keep this coffin for a twelvemonth in their houses, offering before it different kinds of victims, and the first- fruits of their lands; these are afterwards re- moved and set up round the city. XXV. The spies, after executing their com- mission, returned ; and Cambyses was so exas- perated at their recital, that he determined in- stantly to proceed against the -/Ethiopians, with- out ever providing for the necessary sustenance 29 Pillar of cri/.sial.]—" Our glass," says U. Larcher, " is not the production of the earth, it must be manufactured with much trouble." According to Ludolf, they find in some parts of iF.thiopia large quantities of fossil salt, which is transparent, and which indurates in the air : this is perhaps what they took for glass. We have the testimony of the Scholiast on Aristophanes, that vaXog, though afterwards used for glass, signified an- ciently crystal : as therefore Herodotus informs us that this substance was digged from the earth, why should we hesitate to translate it crystal ? — T. T H A L I A. 171 of his army, or reflecting that he was about to visit the extremities of the earth. The moment that he heard the report of the Ichthyophagi, like one deprived of all the powers of reason, he com- menced his march with the whole body of his infantry, leaving no forces behind but such Greeks as had accompanied him to ^gypt. On his ar- rival at Thebes, he selected from his army about fifty thousand men, whom he ordered to make an incursion against the Ammonians, and to burn the place from whence the oracles of Jupiter were delivered : he himself, with the remainder of his troops, marched against the /Ethiopians. Before he had performed a fifth part ^ of his intended expedition, the provisions he had with him were totally consumed. They proceeded to eat the beasts which carried the baggage, till these also failed. If after these incidents Cambyses had permitted his passions to cool, and had led his army back again, notwithstanding his indis- cretion, he still might have deserved praise. In- stead of this, his infatuation continued, and he proceeded on his march. The soldiers, as long as the earth afforded them any sustenance, were * Thus it appears that Cambyses never penetrated beyond the desert of Selima, that is, says Rennell, on the supposition that he set out from Thebes, and that Sennar was the entrance into the country of the Macrobians. The desert here alluded to must necessarily have been that in which Bruce suffered such dreadful hardships, namely, that above Syene. 172 T H A L I A. content to feed on vegetables; but as soon as they arrived among the sands and the deserts, some of them were prompted by famine to pro- ceed to the most horrid extremities. They drew lots, and every tenth man was destined to satisfy the hunger of the rest "'. When Cambyses re- ceived intelligence of this fact, alarmed at the idea of his troops devouring one another, he abandoned his designs upon the ^Ethiopians, and returning homeward arrived at length at Thebes, after losing a considerable number of his men. From Thebes he proceeded to Memphis, from whence he permitted the Greeks to embark. — Such was the termination of the iEthiopian ex- pedition. ^° Satisfy the hunger of the 7-est.'\ — The whole of this narra- tive is transcribed by Seneca, with some little variation, in his treatise de Ira ; who at the conclusion adds, though we know not from what authority, that notwithstanding these dread- ful sufferings of his troops, the king's table was served with abundance of delicacies. Servabantur interim illi generosa^ aves, et instrumenta epularuni camelis vehebantur. Perhaps the most horrid example on record of suffering frojji famine, is the description given by Josephus of the siege of Jerusalem. Eleven thousand prisoners were starved to death after the capture of the city, during the storm. ^Vhilst the Romans were engaged in pillage, on entering several houses they found whole families dead, and the houses crammed with starved carcases ; but what is still more shocking, it was a no- torious fact, that a mother killed, dressed, and eat her own child.— 7'. T H A I. I A. 173 XXVI. Tlie troops who were dispatched against the Ammonians left Thebes with guides, and penetrated, as it should seem, as far as Oasis*. This place is distant from Thebes about a seven days journey over the sands, and is said to be inhabited by Samians, of the .^.schryonian tribe. The country is, called, in Greek, "The happy Islands." The army is reported to have pro- ceeded thus far ; but what afterwards became of them it is impossible to know, except from the Ammonians, or from those whom the Ammonians have instructed on this head. It is certain that they never arrived among the Ammonians, and that they never returned '\ The Ammonians affirm, that as they were marching forwards from Oasis through the sands, they halted at some place of middle distance, for the purpose of tak- * Thus it appears that Herodotus appUes this name of Oasis to the greater Oasis only, which is tiie El, or El Wall of the present day. Indeed, Wall means the Oasis, and El Wall is therefore The Oasis. See on this subject Major Rennell, p. 555. 31 Never returned.] — The route of the army makes it plain that the guides, who detested the Persians, led them astray amidst the deserts ; for they should have departed from the lake Mareotis to this temple, or from the environs of INlem- phis. The ^Egyptians, intending the destruction of their ene- mies, led them from Thebes to the great Oasis, three days journey from Abydus ; and having brought them into the vast solitudes of Libya, they no doubt abandoned them in the nii;ht, and delivered them over to death. — Savani. 174 T H A L I A. ing repast, which whilst they were doing, a strong south wind arose, and overwhelmed them beneath a mountain of sand ", so that they were seen no more. — Such, as the Ammonians relate, was the fate of this army. XXVII. Soon after the return of Cambyses to IMemphis, the god Apis appeared, called by 32 Mountain of sand.^ — What happens at present in per- forming this journey, proves the event to be very credible. Travellers, departing from the fertile valley lying under the tropic, march seven days before they come to the first town in Ethiopia. They find their way in the day-time by look- ing at marks, and at night by observing the stars. The sand-hills they had observed on the preceding journey having often been carried away by the winds, deceive the guides; and if they wander the least out of the road, the camels, having passed five or six days without drinking, sink under their burden, and die : the men are not long before they submit to the same fate, and sometimes, out of a great num- ber, not a single traveller escapes ; at others the burning winds from the south raise vortexes of dust, which suffocate man and beast, and the next caravan sees the ground strewed with bo- dies totally parched up. — Savaiy. Mr. Brown, however, one of the last travellers in these re- gions, does not easily give credit to the idea of living persons being overwhelmed with sand. I think with my friend Major Renncll, that it is more probable that they perished from fa- tigue and the want of water. The proper route would certain- ly have been from Memphis, from whence Ammon was also one-third nearer. See Rennell, p. 578. To this it may be added, that the nature of the desert round Seiva, or Seewa, does not appear to be constituted of that shifting sand of which the Webtern desert is composed. THALIA. 17 the Greeks, Epaphus "'^ Upon this occasion the lEg^nptians clothed themselves in their richest apparel, and made great rejoicings. Cambyses took notice of this, and imagined it was done on account of his late unfortunate projects. He ordered, therefore, the magistrates of IMemphis to attend . him ; and he asked them why they had done nothing of this kind when he w-as formerly at IMemphis, and had only made rejoicings now that he had returned with the loss of so many of his troops. They told him, that their deity ""^ 33 Epap/ius.] — Epaphus was the son of lo, the daughter of Inachus. The Greeks pretended lie was the same person as the god Apis ; this the ^Egyptians rejected as fabulous, and asserted that Epaphus was posterior to Apis by many centuries. 3* Their deity. ^ — It is probable that Apis was not always considered as a deity ; perhaps they regarded him as a sym- bol of Osiris, and it was from this that the ^Egyptians were induced to pay him veneration. Others assert confidently that he was the same as Osiris ; and some have said that Osiris having been killed by Typhon, Isis inclosed his limbs in an heifer made of wood. Apis was sacred to the moon, as was the bull IMnevis to the sun- Others supposed, that both were sacred to Osiris, who is the same with the sun. When he died, there was an univei'sal mourning in ^gypt. They sought for another, and having found him, the mourn- ing ended. The priests conducted him to Nilopolis, where they kept him forty days. They afterwards removed him in a magnificent vessel to IMemphis, where he had an apart- ment ornamented with gold. During the forty days above- mentioned, the women only were suil'i red to see him. They 17G T H A I. I A. had appeared to thcni, which after a long ab- sence it was his custom to do; and that wlieu stood round him, and lifting up their garments, discovered to him what modesty forbids us to name. Afterwaids the sight of the god was forbidden them. Every year they brought him an heifer, which had aUo cer- tain marks. According to the sacred books, he was only per- mitted to live a stipulated time; when this came, he was drowned in a sacred fountain. — Larcher. A few other particulars concerning this Apis may not be imacceptable to an English reader. The homage paid him was not confined to ^gypt ; many illustrious conquerors and princes of foreign nations, Alex- ander, Titus, and Adrian, bowed themselves before him. Larcher says that he was considered as sacred to the moon ; but Porphyry expressly says, that he was sacred to both sun and moon. The following passage is from Plutarch : " The priests affirm that the moon sheds a generative hght, with which should a cow wanting the bull be struck, she con- ceives Apis, who bears the sign of that planet." Strabo says, that he was brought out from his apartment to gratify the cu- riosity of strangers, and might always be seen through a win- dow. Pliny relates with great solemnity that he refused food from the hand of Germanicus, who died soon after ; and one ancient historian asserts, that during the seven days when thfc birth of Apis was celebrated, crocodiles forgot their natural ferocity, and became tame. The bishop of Avranches, iNI. Huet, endeavoured to prove that Apis Was a symbol of the patriarch Joseph. It has been generally allowed, that Osiris was reverenced in the homage paid to Apis. Osiris introduced agriculture, in which the utility of the bull is obvious ; and this appears to be, the most rational explanation that can be given of this part of the ^Egyptian superstition. See Saiari/, Pocochc, S^c.—T. The T H A I. I A. 177 tliis happened, it was customary for all the /Egyp- tians to hold a solemn festival. Cambyses dis- believed what they told him, and condemned them to death, as guilty of falsehood. XXVIII. As soon as they were executed, he sent for the priests, from whom he received the same answer. " If," said he, " any deity has " shown himself familiarly in /Egypt, I must see " and know him." He then eommanded them The reader will remember that one of the plagues in- flicted on -Slgypt by the hand of Moses, was the destruction of the cattle, in which, as the ^Egyptians venerated cattle as divinities, there appears, according to Mr. Bryant, peculiar fitness and analogy. See Bryant on the Plagues of vEgypt, p. 102. This judgment displayed upon the kine of .-Egypt, was very significant in its execution and purport ; for when the dis- temper spread irresistibly over the country, the Egyptians not only sutlered a severe loss, but what was of far greater consequence, they saw the representatives of their deities, and their deities themselves, sink before the god of the He- brews. They thought that the soul of Osiris was uniformly resident in the body of the bull Apis; a notion not unlike that concerning the Deli Lama, in Elith, Tangat, and Thibet. But Osiris had no power to save his brute representatives. Both the Apis and Mnevis were carried off by the same ma- lady which swept away all the herds of deities, these Dii Stercorii who lived on grass and hay. There is reason to think that both the camel and ass were held in some degree sacred, who were involved in the same calamity. Hence ii is said by the sacred writer, Upon their gods also the Lord executed judgment. Vol.. H. N ITS T n A L I A. to bring Apis before liim, wliicb tliev prepnred to do. Tbis Apis, or Kpap]iu«!, is tbe calf of a cow wliicb can bave no more young. Tbe /Fgyp- tians say, tiiat on tbis occasion tbe cow is struck witb ligbtning, from wbicb slie conceives and brings fortii Apis. Tbe young- one so produced, and tbus named, is known by certain marks : Tbe skin is black, but on its forebead is a wbite star of a triangular form. It bas tbe figure of an eagle on tbe back, tbe tail '^ is divided, and under tbe tongue '" it bas an insect like a bv etle. XXTX. Wbcn tbe priests conducted Apis to bis presence, Cambyses was transported witli rage. He drew bis dagger, and endeavouring to stab bim in tbe belly, wounded bini in tlie tbigb ; tben turning to tbe priests witb an insulting smile, " \Vretcbes," be exclaimed, " tbink ye 35 The tail.] — The Scholiast of Ptolemy says, but I know not on what authority, that the tail of the hull increased or diminished according to the age of the moon. — Larchcr. •'^ Under the {oiigiic] — In all the copies of Herodotus, it h tiri Se rrf yXoxrar], upon the tongue; but it is plain from Pliny and pAisebius that it ought to be vVo, under. The former exjilains what it was, Nodus sub lingua quem can- tharura appellant, "a knot under the tongue, which they call cantharus, or the beetle." viii. 46. The spot on the forehead is also changed by the commentators fiom qua- drangular to triangular. Pliny mentions also a mark like a crescent on the right side, and is silent about the eagle. The beetle was considered as an emblem of the sun. — 7'. THALIA. 179 *' that gods are formed of flesh and blood, and <« thus susceptible of wounds ? This, indeed, is " a deity worthy of JiLgyptians : but you shall -' find that I am not to be mocked with impu- ** nity." He then called the proper officers, and commanded the priests to be scourged : he di- rected also that whatever ^^gyptian was found celebrating this festival, should be put to death. • The priests were thus punished, and no farther solemnities observed. Apis himself languished and died in the temple, from the wound of his thigh, and was buried ^^ by the priests without the knowledire of Cambvses. *fc>^ XXX. The Egyptians affirm, that in conse- quence of this impiety, Cambyses became imme- diately mad, who indeed did not before appear to have had the proper use of his reason. The first impulse of his fury, was directed against Smerdis, his own brother, who had become the object of his jealousy, because he was the only Persian who had been able to bend the bow, which the Ich- thyophagi brought from Ethiopia, the breadth of two finders. He was therefore ordered to return to Persia, where as soon as he arrived, Cambyses 37 Buried by the priests.'] — This account is contradicted by Plutarch, who tells us, that Apis having been slain by Cam- byses, w.is bv bis order exposed and devoured by dogs. — T. N 2 m\ 1" H A 1, I A. saw this vision : a messenger appeared to arrive from Persia, informing him that Smerdis, seated on the royal throne, touched the heavens %Yith his head. Cambyses was instantly struck with the apprehension that Smerdis would kill him, and seize his dominions ; to prevent which he dis- patched Prexaspcs, a Persian, and one of his most faithful adherents, to put him to death. He arrived at Susa, and destroyed Smerdis, some say, by taking him aside whilst engaged in the diver- sion of the chace ; others believe that he drowned him in the Red Sea ; this, however, was the com- mencement of the calamities of Cambyses. XXXI. The next victim of his fury was his sister, who had accompanied him to iEgypt. She was also his wife, which thing he thus accom- plished : before this prince, no Persian had ever been known to marry his sister'" ; but Cambyses, being passionately fond of one of his, and know- ing that there was no precedent to justify his 38 Marry his sister.^ — Ingenious and learned men of all ages have amused themselves with drawing a comparison be- twixt the laws of Solon and Lycurgus. The following par- Mcularity affords ample room for conjecture and discussion : At Athens a man was suffered to marry his sister by the father, but forbidden to marry his sister by the mother. At Lacedtemon things were totally reversed, a man was allowed to marry his sister by the mother, and forbidden to marry his sister by the father. — See what Bayle says on the circum- stance of a man'8 marrvinc: his sister, article Sarah. — T. T H A L I A. 181 making her his wife, assciiiblcxl those who were called the royal judges ; of them, he desired to know whether there was any law which would permit a brother to marry his sister, if he thought proper to do so. The royal judges in Persia are men of the most approved integrity, who hold their places for life, or till they shall be convicted of some crime '^. Every thing is referred to their 39 Of some cnme.~\ — Our judges formerly held their offices d irante bene placito, and the King might remove them at pleasure. This continued till the passing of the act 13 Wil- liam III. chap. 3, which was expressly made for the purpose of maintaining the dignity and independence of the judges in the superior courts ; and which enacted, that the com- missions of the judges should be made quamdiu se bene gesserint, and that their salaries should be fixed and established, but they were still liable to be removed on the address of both houses of parliament, and their seats were vacated upon any demise of the crown. By the 1st Geo. III. chap. 23, the judges are at liberty to continue in their offices during their good behaviour, not- withstanding any demise of the crown, and their salaries are absolutely secured to them. This act was made at the express recommendation of His Majesty, from the throne ; his words are memorable ; he was pleased to declare that " he looked upon the independence and uprightness of the judges as essential to the impartial administration of justice ; as one of the best securities of the rights and liberties of his subjects ; and as most conducive to the honour of the crown." 1st Blac. Com. 257. These and various other acts which have been passed since the Revolution in 1688, such as the bill of rights, to- leration act, septennial parliament, &c. have considerably reduced the executive power ; but it has on the other hand acquired so much strength from the riot-act, the establishment 182 T II A L I A. decision, they are tlie interpreters of the laws, and determine all private disputes. In answer to the enquiry of Cambyses, they replied shrewdly, though with truth, that although they could find no law which would permit a brother to marry his sister, they had discovered one which enabled a monarch of Persia to do what he pleased. In this answer, the awe of Cambyses prevented their adopting literally the spirit of the Persian laws ; and to secure their persons, they took care to discover what would justify him, who wished to marry his sister. Cambyses, therefore, instantly married the sister whom he loved "', and not long afterwards a second ". The younger of these, who accompanied him to i^gypt, he put to death. XXXII. The manner of her death, like that of Smerdis, is differently related. The Greeks say that Cambyses made the cub of a lioness and a young whclji engage each other, and that this princess was present at the combat ; when this of a standing army, and a funded debt, and the manner of raising those loans that are appropriated to pay off the interest, that it seems fair to conclude that what the crown has lost in prerogative it has gained in influence. *° Wlium he loved.] — Her name, according to the Scholiast of Lucian, was Atossa, who next married Smerdis, one of the magi, and afterwards Darius, son of llystaspes. — J,aii/ur. ** Afterivards a second.'] — If 1 jbanius may be credited, the name of this ladv was Meroe. — lVe.\!scUiiyciiates. " The success of a friend and an ally fills me with particular satisfaction ; but as I know the invidiousness of Fortune ^^, your extraordinary in practice against their unfortunate captives every species of oppression and of cruelty, to the present period, when the reiinenient of manneis, and the progress of the milder virtues, soften the asperity, and take much from the horrors of war. — T. 49 Invidiousness of Furtitne.] — Three very distinct qualities of mind have been imputed to the three Greek historians, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, with respect to their manner of reflectmg on the facts which they relate. Of the first, it has been said that he seems to have considei'ed the deity as viewing man with a jealous eye, as only promoting his successes to make the catastrophe of his fate the more calamitous. This is pointed out by Plutarch with the se- verest reprehension. Thucydides, on the contrary, admits of no divine interposition in human ati'airs, but makes the good or ill fortune of those whose history he gives us, depend on the wisdom or folly of their own conduct. Xenophon, in distinction from both, invariably considers the kindness or the vengeance of Heaven as influencing the event of human enterprizes. " That is, " says the Abbe Barthelemy, " according to the first, all sublunary things are goveined by a fatality ; according to the second, by human prudence ; according to the last, by the piety of the individual." — The Vol. 11. O 194 T II A L I A. " prosperity excites my apprehensions. If I " might determine for myself, and for those " whom 1 regard, I woukl rather have my " affairs sometimes flattering, and sometimes " perverse. I woukl wisli to pass tln-ough life with inconstiincy of Fortune is admirably described in the following passage from Horace ; and with the sentiment with which the lines conclude, every ingenuous mind must desire to be in unison. Fortuna saevo la?ta negotio, et Ludum insolentem ludere pertinax, Transmutat incertos honores. Nunc mihi, nunc aliis benigna. Laudo manentem : si celeres quatil Pennas, resigno quce dedit, et med Virtute me involve, probamque Pauperiem sine dote quajro. It would be inexcusable not to insert Dryden's version, or rather paraphrase, of the above passage. Fortune, that with malicious joy Does man her slave oppress, Proud of her office to destroy, Is seldom pleas'd to bless : Still various, and inconstant still. But with an inclination to be ill, Promotes, degrades, delights in strife, And makes a lottery of life. I can enjoy her while she's kind ; But when she dances in the wind. And shakes the wings, and will not stay, I pufi' the prostitute away : The little or the much she gave is quietly resign'd. Content with poverty, niy soul 1 arm. And virtue, tho' in rags, will keep me warm. 7'. THALIA. 19 ' the alternate expCTieiice of good and evil, rather ' than with uninterrupted good fortune. I do ' not remember to have heard of any man re- ' markable for a constant succession of prosperous * events, whose end has not been finally calami- ' tons. If, therefore, you value my counsel, you ' will provide this remedy against the excess of * your prosperity : — Examine well what thing it ' is which you deem of the highest consequence ' to your happiness, and the loss of which would ' most afflict you. When you shall have ascer- * tained this, banish it from you, so that there ' may be no possibility of its return. If after * this, your good fortune shall still continue with- ' out diminution or change, you will do well to ' repeat the remedy I propose." XLI. Polycrates received this letter, and se- riously deliberated on its contents. The advice of Amasis appeared sagacious, and he resolved to follow it. He accordingly searched among his treasures for something, the loss of which would most afflict him. He conceived this to be a seal- ring^, which he occasionally wore; it was an 50 A seal-ring.] — This ring has been the subject of some controversy amongst the learned, both as to what it repre- sented, and of what precious stone it was formed. Clemens Alexandrinus says it represented a lyre. Pliny says it was a sardonyx ; and that in his time there existed 0 2 196 T H A L I A. emerald set in gold, and the workmanship of Theodonis the Saniian, the son of Tekcles. Determining- to deprive himself of this, he em- barked in a iifty-oared vessel, with orders to be carried into the open sea : when he was at some distance from tlie island, in the presence of all his attendants, he took tlie ring from his linger and east it into the sea; having done this he sailed back again. XLII. lleturning home, he regretted his loss ; but in the course of five or six days this accident occurred : — A fisherman caught a fish of such size one in the temple of Concord, the gift of Augustus, affirmed to be this of Polycrates. Solhius asserts also, that it was a sardonyx; but Herodotus expressly tells us, it was an emerald. At this period the art of engraving precious stones must have been in its infancy, which might probably enhance the value of his ring to Polycrates. It is a little remarkable that the moderns have never been able to equal the ancients in the exquisite delicacy and beauty of their performances on precious stones. Perhaps it may not be too much to add, that we have never attained the perfection with which they executed all works in miniature. Pliny says, that Cicero once saw the Iliad of Homer written so very finely, that it might have been contained ' in nuce,' in a nut-shtll. Aulus Gellius mentions a pigeon made of wood, which imitated the motions of a living bird ; and JEVian speaks of an artist, who wrote a distich in letters of gold, which he inclosed in the rind of a grain of corn. Other instances of a similar kind are collected by the learned Mr. Dutens, in his Enquiry into the Origin of the Ditooveries attributed to the Moderns. — T. T II ALIA. 197 and beauty, that he deeinetl it a proper present for Polycrates. He went therefore to the pa- lace, and demanded an audience ; being admitted, he presented liis fish to Polycrates, with these words : " Although, sir, I live by the produce of " my industry, I could not think of exposing this " fish, which I have taken, to sale in the market- " place, believing it worthy of you to accept, " which' I hope you will." The king was much gratified, and made him this reply : " My good *' friend, your present and your speech are " equally acceptable to me ; and I beg that I " may see you at supper^'." The fisherman. ^' See you at supper. "^—The circumstance of a sovereign prince asking a common fisherman to sup with him, seems at first sight so entirely repugnant, not only to modern manners but also to consistency, as to justify disgust and provoke sus- picion. But let it be remembered, that in ancient times the rites of hospitality were paid without any distinction of person; and the same simplicity of manners, which would allow an individual of the meanest rank to solicit and obtain an au- dience of his prince, diminishes the act of condescension which is here recorded, and which to a modern reader may appear ridiculous. — T. The story of the fisherman, in the fourth Satire of Juvenal, will here occur to the reader. He carried his enormous fish to the prince, who, ])y the way, did not ask him to supper, which marks the progress of refinement, the times of Domi- tian being comparatively modern. The present, however, was accompanied by a speech, which I shall insert, in Mr. Gif- ford's version. This, which no subject's kitchen can contain; This fish, reserved for your auspicious reign, _ 198 THALIA. delighted with his reception, returned to liis house. The servants proceeding to open the fish, found in its paunch the ring of Polycratcs ; with great eagerness and joy, they hastened to carry it to the king, telling him where they had met with it. Polycrates concluded that this incident bore evi- dent marks of divine interposition ; he therefore wrote down every particular of what had hap- pened, and transmitted it to iEgypt. XLIII. Amasis, after perusing the letter of his friend, was convinced that it was impossible for one mortal, to deliver another from the des- tiny which awaited him ; he was satisfied that Polycratcs covdd not terminate his days in tran- quillity, whose good fortune had never suffered interruption, and who had even recovered what he had taken pains to lose. He sent therefore a herald to Samos, to disclaim all future connec- tion^'; his motive for doing which, was the ap- O chief, accept : to free your stomach haste, And here at large indulge your princely taste. No toils I set; he long'd his lord to treat, And rush'd a willing victim to the net. ^"^ Future connection.] — This may be adduced as one amongst numerous other instances, to prove, that wlitTe the human mind has no solid hopes of the future, nor any firm basis of religious faith, the conduct will ever be wayward and irregular ; and although there may exist great qualities, <'apable of occasionally splendid actions, there will also l)e extraordinary weaknesses, irreconcilcable to connuon sen^e THALIA. 199 prehension, that in any future calamity which might befal Polycrates, he, as a friend and ally, might be obliged to bear a part. XLIV. Against this Polycrates, in all things so prosperous, the Lacedaemonians undertook an expedition, to which they were induced by those Samians who afterwards built the city of Cydon in Crete "". To counteract this blow, Polycrates sent privately to Cambyses, who was then pre- paring for hostilities against J^gypt, entreating him to demand supplies and assistance of the Samians. With this Cambyses willingly complied, and sent to solicit, in ilivour of Polycrates, some naval force to serve in his /Egyptian expedition. The Samian prince selected those from tlie rest whose principles and intentions he most sus- pected, and sent them in forty triremes to Cam- or common humanity. Diodorus Siculus, however, gives a very different account of the matter, and ascribes "the beha- viour of Amasis to a very different motive :— " The .Egyptian," says he, " was so disgusted with the tyrannical behaviour of Polycrates, not only to his subjects but to strangers, that he foresaw his fate to be unavoidable, and therefore was cautious not to be involved in his ruin." — T. ^3 Ciidoii in Crete.'] — This place is now called Canea : some say it was at first called Apollonia, because built by Cydon the son of Apollo. Pausanias says, it was built by Cydon, son of Tegetes. It was once a place of great power, and the largest city in the island. For a description of \\.> prtsent condition see Saxan/'x Letters on Grt^ece. — T. 200 THALIA. byses, requesting him by all ineiins to prevent their return. XLV. There are some who assert, that the Sa- jnians sent by Polycratcs, never arrived in iKgypt, but that as soon as they reached the Carpathian sea they consulted together, and determined to proceed no farther. Otliers, on the contraiy, ailirm, tliat they did arrive in iEgypt, but that they escaped from their guards, and returned to Samos: they add, that Polycrates met and en- gaged them at sea, where he was defeated ; but that, landing afterwards on the island, they had a second engagement by land, in which they were totally routed, and obliged to fly to I^acedasmon. They who assert that the Samians returned from .^igypt, and obtained a victory over Polycrates, arc in my opinion mistaken ; for if their own force was sufficient to overcome him, there was no necessity for their applying to the Lacedae- monians for assistance. Neither is it at all con- sistent with probability, that a })rincc who had so many forces under his command, composed as well of foreign auxiliaries as of archers of his own, could possibly be overcome by the few Sa- mians who were returning home. Polycrates, moreover, had in his power the wives and chil- dren of his Samian subjects : these were all as- sembled and confined in his different harbours ; and he was determined to destroy them ])v lire. T H A L I A. 201 and the harbours along with them, in case of any treasonable conjunction between the inhabitants and the Samians who were returning. XLVI. The Samians who were expelled by Polycrates, immediately on their arrival at Sparta obtained an audience of the magistrates, and spoke a great while in the language of suppliants. The answer which they first received informed them, that the commencement of their discourse was not remembered, and the conclusion not un- derstood. At the second interview they simjily produced a leathern bag, and complained that it con- tained no bread ; even to this, the Lacedaemonians replied, that their observation was unnecessary '* ; — they determined nevertheless to assist them. 54 Obseriafioii xvas unnecessary i\ — The Spartans were always remarkable for their contempt of oratory and eloquence. The following curious examples of this are recorded in Sextus Em- piricus : — " A young Spartan went abroad, and endeavoured to accomplish himself in the art of speaking ; on his return he was punished by the Ephori, for having conceived the design of deluding his countrymen. Another Spartan was sent to Tissaphernes, a Persian satrap, to engage him to prefer the alliance of Sparta to that of Athens ; he said but little, but when he found the Athenians employed great pomp and profu- sion of words, he drew two lines, both terminating in the same point, but one was straight, the other very crooked ; pointing these out to Tissapliernes, he merely said, " Choose." 1 ho story here related of the Samians, by Herodotus, is found albo in Sextus Em|>iricus, but is by him applied on a different occa- sion, and to a diferent people. — -T. 202 T H A L I A. XL VI I. After the necessary preparations, the Lacedaemonians embarked with an army against Samos : if the Samians may be credited, the con- duct of the Lacedaemonians in this business was the effect of gratitude, they themselves having formerly received a supply of ships against the IMessenians. But the Lacedsemonians assert, that they engaged in this expedition not so much to satisfy the wishes of those Samians who had sought their asisstance, as to obtain satisfaction for an injury which they had formerly received. The Samians had violently taken away a goblet which the Lacedaemonians were carrying to Croesus, and a corselet ^^ which was given them by Amasis king of /Egypt. This latter incident took place at the interval of a year after the former : the corselet* was made of linen, but there were interwoven in the piece, a great num- ber of animals riclily embroidered with cotton and gold ; every part of it deserved admiration : it was composed of chains, each of which con- tained three Inuidrcd and sixty threads distinctly •^5 A cursclct.^ — Some fragments of this were to be seen in tlie time of Pliny, who comphiins that so curious a piece of workmanship should he spoiled, by its being unravelled by dif- ferent people, to gratify curiosity, or to ascertain the fact here asserted. — T. * This corselet is mentioned with praise by Herodotus, in Kuterpe, c. 182; by Pliny, Nut. Hist, book xix. c. I ; and by ^lian. Hist. An. book ix. c. 17. T II ALIA. 203 visible. Amasis presented another corselet, entirely resembling this, to the INlinerva of Lindns. XLVIII. To this expedition against Samos, the Corinthians also contribnted, with consi- derable ardour. In the age which preceded, and about the time in which the goblet had been taken, this people had been insulted by the Sa- mians. Periander ', the son of Cypselus, had sent to Alyattes, at Sardis, three hundred chil- dren of the principal families of the Corcyreans, to be made eunuchs. They were intrusted to the care of certain Corinthians, who, by distress 56 Periander.] — The life of Periander is given by Dio- genes Laertius ; from which I have extracted such parti- culars as seem most worthy the attention of the English reader. He was of the family of the Heraclida? ; and the reason of his sending the young Corcyreans, with the purpose men- tioned by Herodotus, was on account of their having killed his son, to whom he wished to resign his power. He was the first prince who used guards for the defence of his per- son. He was by some esteemed one of the seven wise men ; Plato, however, does not admit him amongst them. His cele- brated saying was, that " Perseverance may do every thing." In an epigram inserted in Stephens's Anthologia, and trans- lated by Ausonius, ^'oXh KpareEiv is the maxim attributed to Periander, " Restrain your anger:" of which rule he must have severely felt the necessity, if, as Laertius relates, he killed his wife Melissa in a transport of passion, by kicking her or throwing a chair at lier when pregnant. Her name, ac- cording to the same author, was Lyside ; Melissa was probably substituted through fondness, certain nymphs and departed hu- man souls being called Blc/i.sscc — Menage. — T. 204 THALIA. of weather, were compelled to touch at Sanios. The Samians soon learned the purpose of the expedition, and accordingly instructed the chil- dren to fly for protection to the temple of Diana, from whence they would not suffer the Corin- thians to take them. But as the Corinthians prevented their receiving any food, the Samians instituted a festival on the occasion, which they yet observe. At the approach of night, and as long as the children continued as suppliants in the temple, they introduced a company of youths and virgins, who, in a kind of religious dance, were to carry" cakes made of honey and flour ^^ in their hands. This was done that the young Corcyreans, by snatching them away, might sa- tisfy their hunger, and was repeated till the Co- rinthians who guarded the children departed. The Samians afterwards sent the children back to Corcyra *'. 57 Huney andjlour.^ — The cakes of Sanios were very famous. — See Alhenaeus, book xiv. c. 13. 58 Back to Corcyra.'] — Plutarch, in his Treatise on the Ma- lii^iiity of Herodotus, says, " that the young Corcyreaus were not preserved by t!ie Samians, but by the Cnidians." — I'his as- sertion is examined and refuted by Larcher. Pliny says, that the fish called echines stopped the vessel going swift before the wind, on board of wliicj) were mes- sengers of Periander, having it in command to castrate the sons of the Cnidian noblemen ; for whicli reason these shells were highly reverenced in the temple of Venus at Cnidos. M. I. archer, avowedly giving the reader tbe above passage from Pliny, is guilty of a niisquolaliun : " these shells," THALIA. 205 XLIX. If after the death of Pcriander, there had existed any friendship hetwixt the Corinthi- ans and the Corcyreans, it might he supposed tliat they would not have assisted in this expe- dition against Samos. But notwithstanding these people had the same origin (the Corinthians hav- ing huilt Corcyra) they had always lived in a state of enmity. The Corinthians, therefore, did not forget the affront which they had received at Samos ; and it was in resentment of injuries for- merly received from the Corcyreans, that Peri- ander had sent to Sardis tliese three hundred youths of the first families of Corcyra, witli the intention of their heing made eunuchs. L. When Periander had put his wife jNIclissa to death, lie was involved in an additional cala- mity. By Melissa*, he had two sons, one of says he, " arreterent le vaisseaii ou ctoient ces en fans ;" whereas the words of Pliny (see Gronov. edit. vol. i, p. 609) are these, " Quibus inhasrentibas stetisse navem portantem nuncios a Periundro ut castrarentur nobiles pueri." — T. * The story of Melissa is thus related in Ather.a;us, book xiii. c. 6. Pytha>netus, in his third book of the history of ^Egina, says that Periander, having seen Melissa, the daughter of Procles of Epidaurus, in a Peloponnesian dress, without any robe, in one simple vest, and serving out wine to the labourers, fell in love with and married her. The following is from Diogenes Laertius : He had two sons by Melissa, Cypselus and Lycophron. At son.e succeeding period, beino- exasperated against her J20(i T H A L I A. whom was seventeen, the other eighteen years old : Procles, their grandfather hy tlie mother's side, had sent for them to Epidaurus, of which place he was prince ; and had treated them with all the kindness due to the children of his daughter. At the time appointed for their de- parture, he took them aside, and asked them if they knew who had killed their mother. To these words the elder hrother paid no attention ; but the younger, whose name was Lycophron, took it so exceedingly to heart, that at his return to Corinth he would neither salute his father, converse with, nor answer him ; in indignation at which behaviour, Periander banished him his house. T^I. After the above event, Periander asked his elder son, what their grandfather had said to them. The youth informed him, that their grand- father had received them very affectionately, but as he did not remember, he could not relate the words he had used to them at parting. The father, however, continued to press him ; saying, it was impossible that their grandfather should dismiss them without some advice. This induced the young man more seriously to reflect on what had passed ; and he afterwards informed his father by the calumny of one of his conrubines, he was the cause of her death, hy kicking her when she was pregnant. According to Pausanias, there was a uinmiincnt in honour v)f this .M('ll^s;l, noar I'pidauru'i. THALIA. 207 of every particular. Upon this, Periander was determined not at all to relax from his severity, but immediately sent to those who had received his son under their protection, commanding them to dismiss him. Lycophron was thus driven from one place to another, and from thence to a third, and from this last also the severity of Periander expelled him. Yet, fearful as people were to entertain him, he still found an asylum, from the consideration of his being the son of Periander. LII. Periander at length commanded it to be publicly proclaimed, that whoever harboured his son, or held any conversation with him, should pay a stipulated fine for the use of Apollo's tem- ple. After this no person presumed either to receive or converse with him, and Lycophron himself acquiesced in the injunction, by retiring to the public portico. On the fourth day, Pe- riander himself observed him in this situation, covered with filth* and perishing with hunger: his heart relenting, he approached, and thus addressed him : " JVIy son, which do you think " preferable, your present extremity of distress, " or to return to your obedience, and share with * The original is aXHtrnjai, literally with unwashed things. In warm countries, before the use of linen, the frequent ap- plication of the bath, and of washing, must have been pe- culiarly necessary, and makes this expression striking and appropriate. 208 T H A I. I A. " mc my authority and riclics? You vvlio arc " my son, and a prince of the hapi)y Corinth, " choose the Hfe of a mendicant, and persevere " in irritating liim, who has the strongest claims " upon your duty. If the incidcr.t which in- '• duces vou to think unfavourably of my con- " duct, has any evil resulting from it, the whole *' is fallen upon myself; and I feel it the more " sensibly, from the reflection that I was myself *' the author of it. Experience has taught you " how much better it is to be envied than pi- " tied"'^, and how dangerous it is to provoke a *' superior and a parent — return therefore to my " house." To this speech Periander received no other answer from his son, than that he him- self, by conversing with him, had incurred the penalty which his edict had imposed. The king 59 Envied than pitied.] — Of this, M. Larcher remarks, that it is a proverbial expression in the French language : it is no less so in our own. The same sentiment in Pindar is re- ferred to hy the learned Frenchman, which is thus translated by Mr. West. Nor less distasleful is excessive fame To the sour palate of the envious mind ; Who hears with grief his neighbour's goodly name, And hates the fortune that he ne'er shall find ; Yet in thy virtue, lliero, persevere, Since to be envied is a nobler fate Than to be pitied, and let strict justice steer With equitable hand the helm of state. And arm thy longue with truth : O king ! buware Of every stf^p : a prince can never lightly err. — T. THALIA. 209 perceiving the perverseness of his son to be im- mutable, determined to remove him from his sight ; he therefore sent him in a vessel to Cor- cyra, which place also belonged to him. After this, Periander made war upon his father-in-law Procles, whom he considered as the principal oc- casion of what had happened. He made himself master of Epidaurus "", and took Procles prisoner ; whom nevertheless he preserved alive. LI II. In process of time, as Periander ad- ^^' Epidaiini.s.] — This was a city of the Peloponnese, famous for a temple of .Slsculapiiis. When the Romans were once af- flicted by a grievous pestilence, they were ordered by tlie oracle to bring ^^sculapius to Rome ; they accordingly dispatched ambassadors to Epidaurus to accomplish this. The Epidaurians refusing to part with their god, the Romans prepared to depart: as their vessel was quitting the port, an immense serpent came swinmiing towards them, and finally writhed itself round the prow ; the crew, thinking it to be aEsculapius himself, carried him with much veneration to Rome. — His entrance is finely described by Ovid : — .lamque caput rerum Romanam intraverat urbem, Erigitur serpens — summoque acclivia malo Colla movet: sedesque sibi circumspicit aptas. Which description, fully considered, would perhaps aflbrd no mean subject for an historical painting. Epidaurus was also famous for its breed of horses. — See Virgil, Georgic. iii. 43, 4. Vocat ingenti clamore Citharron, Taygetique canes, domitrixque Epidaurus equorum. The same fact is also mentioned by Strabo, book viii. — T. Vol n. P 210 T II ALIA, vanced in years, he hesjan to feci himself inade- quate to the cares of government ; he sent there- fore for I^3'Cop]n"on to Corcyra, to take upon liim the administration of affairs : his eldest son * appeared ini])ropcr for sncli a station, and was indeed dull and stupid. Lycophron disdained to take the smallest notice of the messenger wlio brought him this intelligence. But l^eriander, as he felt his affection for the young man to be unalterable, sent his sister to liim, thinking her interposition most likely to succeed. AVhen she saw him, " Brother," said she, " will you suffer " the sovereign authority to pass into other " hands, and the riches of our family to be dis- " persed, rather than return to enjoy them your- " self? Let me entreat you to punish yourself " no more; return to your country and your " family : obstinacy like yours is but an unwel- " come guest, it only adds one evil to another. " Pity is by many preferred to justice ; and " many, from their anxiety to fulfil tlieir duty " to a mother, have violated tliat whicli a fatlier " might expect. Power, whicli many so assi- " duously court, is in its nature precarious f. * That is, Cypseliis. See cliup. 5 — note, t A siiiiilar sentiment occurs in tlie Ipliigenia in ^iilis of Euripides, whicli is thus translated by Mr. AVodlndl : Yet such splendour oft is found Precarious. — Empire, tempting to ti;e view, Conios laden with aflliction. • - This T H A L I A. 211 " Your father is growing old, do not therefore " resign to others, honours which are properly *' your own." Thus instructed by her father, she used every argument likely to influence her brother ; but he briefly answered, " that as long " as liis fatlier lived he would not return to *' Corinth." When she had communicated this answer to Periander, he sent a third messenger to his son, informing him, that it was his inten- tion to retire to Corcyra ; but that Lycophron might return to Corinth, and take possession of the supreme authority. This proposition was accepted, and Periander prepared to depart for Corcyra, tlic young man for Corinth. But when the Corcyreans were informed of the business, to prevent the arrival of Periander among them, they put his son to death. — This was what in- duced that prince to take vengeance on the Corcyreans. LIV. The Lacedaemonians arrivine; with a powerful fleet, laid siege to Samos, and advanc- ing towards the walls, they passed by a tower which stands in the suburbs, not far from the sea. At this juncture Poly crates attacked them This version is by no means accurate. The Greek is — Turo Bs yioTi to kciKov arove mentioned ; I saw him at Pitane Ci Pitane.] — 1 his proper name involves some perplexity, and lias att'orded exercise lor niiicli acute and ingenious cri- ticism. Martiniere, from mistaking a passage ot Pausanias, asserts that it was merely a quarter, or rather suburbs of Lacedcemon, and is consequently often confounded with it. This mistake is ably pointed out and refuted by Bellanger, jM iiis Critique de quelques Articles du Diet, de IM. la ]Mar- tiniere. This word is found in Hesychius, as descriptive of a distinct tribe; in Thucydides, of a small town; and in Herodotus, of a whole people : — See book ix. chap. 52, where he speaks of the cohort of I'itane, which in the glorious battle of Plalea was commanded by Amomphaietus. It is certain that there were several places of this name ; the one THALIA. 213 of \vliicli place he was a native. This person paid more attention to Samians than to other foreigners ; and he told me, that his father ^v•as called Samius, as being the immediate descendant of him, who with so much honour had lost his life at Samos. The reason of his thus distino-uishino- the Samians, was because they had honoured his grandfather by a public funeral ^'. here specified was doubtless on the banks of the Eurotas, in Laconia. — See Essais de Critique, S^c. 31 6. — T. ^" Public funeral.'] — The manner in which the funerals of those who had died in defence of their country were so- lemnized at Athens, cannot fail of giving tbe Eni^Usli reader an elevated idea of that pohshed people. On an appointed day a number of cofliiis made of cypress wood, and containing the bones of tlie deceased, were ex- posed to vifw beneath a large tent erected for the purpose ; they who had relations to deploie, assembled to weep over them, and pay the duties dictated by tenderness or enjoined by rehgion. Three days afterwards the coffins were placed upon as many cars as there were tribes, and were carried slowly through the town, to the Ceramicus, where funeral games were celebrated. The bodies were deposited in the earth, and their relations and friends paid for the last time the tribute of their tears; an orator appointed by the re- public from an elevated place pronounced a funeral oiation over his valiant countrymen ; each tribe raised over the graves some kind of culunm, upon vyhich was inscribed tlie names of the deceased, their age, and the place where they died. The above solenniities were conducted under the inspection of one of the principal magistrates. The most magnilicent public funeral of which we have any account, was that of Alexander the Great, when his body 214 T II A L I A. LVI. The Tiacccla'Tnonians, after reinaining forty days before the phicc witliout any advantage, returned to the Peloponncsc. It is reported, though most absurdly, that Polycratcs struck off a great number of pieces of lead cased with gold*", like the coin of the country, and that was brought from Babylon to Alexandria ; a minute descrip- tion of which is given by Diodorus Siculus. For a particular description of the ceremonies observed at public and private funerals, amongst the Romans, consult Montfaucon. — T. ^^ Lead cased "With gold P\ — Similar to this artifice, was that practised on the people of Gortyna in Crete, by Hannibal, as recorded by Justin. After the defeat of Antioclius by the Romans, Hannibal retired to Gortyna, carrying with him an immense treasure. This circumstance exciting the envy of the people against him, he pretended to deposit his riches in the temple of Diana, to which place he carried with much ceremony several vessels filled with lead. He soon took an opportunity of passing over into Asia with his real wealth, which he had concealed in the images of the gods he ati'ected to worship. No such coins as those mentioned by Herodotus having been ever discovered, is perhaps a sufiicient justification of our authoi", for the discredit which he has here thrown upon the story concerning the artifice of Polycrates. That spu- rious coins, however, of this kind, were fabricated in very- early times, is a fact with which every Medallist must be sufficiently acquainted. Tlie collection of Dr. Hunter will afford several examples. One instance of a leaden coin, cased with silver, as remote as the time of Seleuciis the First, of Syria, may be seen in tbat cabinet ; wliere is also a similar coin of the city of Naples. The collection at the British JNIuseum, would doubtless atVord several instances of the T H A L I A. 215 with these he purchased their departure. — This was the first expeditiou of the Dorians*' of La- cedsenioii into Asia. like forgery. In the Roman Series, Neumann (Nioii. Vet. Anccdoti, pars xi. p. 201) makes mention of a remarkable instance from Schulzius, of a leaden coin of Nero, which had been anciently circulated for brass, in which metal it was enclosed. Of leaden coins covered with gold there are two examples in the cabinet of Dr, Hunter; one belonging to the Emperor Trajan, and the other to his successor, liadi-ian. The lead, however, in these coins, seems to have been har- dened by a mixture of some other metal, perhaps tin, or a small portion of silver. Demosthenes relates, from Solon, that several cities in Greece adulterated their coins as well with lead as with brass — apyvpno irpot; j^aXicoy kui fioXvftcvy KtKpajxiyio, Oratione adv. Timocratem, vol. iii. p. 440. Edit. Taylor. And Dion Cassius informs us, that the Emperor Ca- racalla, instead of gold and silver, issued brass and leaden money ; the first of which, for the purpose of concealing his fraud, he caused to be washed or cased with gold, and the latter with silver — ~o, re apyvpioy tcai to y^pvaioy 6 Trapeivty t'ljuii^ TO /Liey IK juoXvjycov KUTapyvpovficyov, to ce kui ^k j^aXi^ov h:aTay^pvcrov/Lityuy tcricEva^ETo. Lib. 77- P- 8/6. edit. Leundatii. JNIany Samian coins are to be seen in the cabinets of col- lectors. These have sometimes been mistaken for the coins of Salamis in Cyprus, owing to the circumstance of their having only the two initial letters of the inscription upon them. The French writers still reniain in this error, and confound the coins of bolh the above places. There cannot, however, be any reasonable duubi luki- tained upon this point, since we have in onr own comary, in ihe iiunterian toUectinn, a (genuine coin ol iliis juropie, which, while il agrees in every other rtspect vviih tiiiiic attributed lo SaUuiiis, dilierb in the important particular oj * For this note, see the next page. 216 T H A L I A. LVII. Those Samians \vho had taken up arms against Polycrates, wlicn they saw themselves for- saken by tlie Laceda3monians, and were distressed from want of money, embarked for Siphnos"'. preserving the impressiou of the name at full length — lAMIflN. See Fellcrin Rccucil de Meduillcs dc Pcirplcs it dc Villes, torn. 3, pi. 101. Catalogue d'une Collection d'em- preintes en sovfre de Meduillcs Giecques ct Romaines, a Paris, An. 8. p. 53. Hunteri Num. Vet. Populorum et Urbium, p. 258, tab. 47. Dom. Sestini Classes Generales Geographiw Numismaticce, pars xi. p. 84. * Larcher, in his first edition, had omitted the term of Lacedaemon, thinking with Valcknaer, that Dorians was suf- ficient of itself. In his second edition he has rendered it Lacedaemonian Dorians. ^^ Siphnos.] — This was one of those small islands lying opposite to Attica : They were seventeen in number, and called, from their situation with respect to each other, the Cyclades ; they were all eminently beautiful, and severally distinguished by some appropriate excellence. The marble of Paros was of inimitable whiteness, and of the finest grain ; Andros and Naxos produced the most exquisite wine; Amen- gos was famous for a dye made from a lichen, growing there in vast abundance. The riches of Siphnos are extolled by niany ancient writers ; it is now called Siphauto. The followins; account of the modern circumstances of Siphnos, is extracted principally from Tournefort. It is remarkable for the purity of its air ; the water, fruit, and poultry, are very excellent. Although covered with marble and granite, it is one of the mo t fertile islands of the Archipelago. They have a famous manufactory of straw bats, which are sold all over the Archipelago, by the name of Siphanto castors : though once so famous for its mines of gold and silver, the inhabitants can now hardly tell THALIA. 217 At this time the power of the Siphnians was very considerable, and tliey were the richest of all the ' inhabitants of the islands. Their soil produced both the gold and silver metals in such abun- dance, that from a tenth part of their revenues, they had a treasury at Delphi, equal in value to the richest which that temple possessed. Every year they made an equal distribution among themselves, of the value of their mines : wliilst their wealth was thus accumulating, they con- sulted the oracle, to know whether they should long continue in the enjoyment of their present good fortune. From the Pythian they received this answer : When Siphnos shall a milk-white senate show. And all her market wear a front of snow ; Him let her prize whose wit suspects the most, A scarlet envoy from a wooden host. At this period the prytaneum, and the forum of Siphnos, were adorned with Parian marble. LVIII. This reply of the oracle, the Siphnians were unable to comprehend, both before and after the arrival of the Samians. As soon as tlic you where they were. They have plenty of lead, wiiich the rams discover. The ladies of Siphanto cover their faces with linen bandages so dexterously that you. can only see their mouth, nose, and white of the eyes. — T. 218 THALIA. Samiaiis touched at Siphnos, they dispatched a messenger to the town, in one of their vessels. According to the ancient custom, all ships were painted of a red colour ; and it was this which induced the Pytliian, to warn the Siphnians against a w^ooden snare, and a red ambassador. On their arrival, the Samian ambassadors en- treated the inhabitants to lend them ten talents : on being refused, they plundered the country. The Siphnians hearing of this, collected their forces, and were defeated in a regular engage- ment ; a great number were, in the retreat, cut off from the town, and the Samiaus afterwards exacted from them an hundred talents. LIX. Instead of money, the Samiaus had re- ceived of the Hermionians, the island of Thyrea*, adjacent to the Peloponnese : this they after- wards gave as a pledge to the Trsezenians. They afterwards made a voyage to Crete, where they built Cydonia, although their object in going there, was to expel the Zacynthians. In this place they continued five years, during wliich period they Avere so exceedingly prosperous, that they not only erected all those temples wliich are * There was another place of this name in Arcadia. See Pausanias, book 8, 1. 3.3. In the original le.Kt it is Hydrea ; but this, by common consent of ilie bcit manuscripts, is eiioncoub. THALIA. 219 now seen in Cydonia, but built also the temple of Dictynna^l In the sixth year, from a junction being made with the Cretans by the ^gineta?, they were totally vanquished in a sea engage- ment, and reduced to servitude. The prows of their vessels were taken away and defaced, and afterwards suspended in the temple of JMinerva at iEgina. The ^Egiuetai were impelled to tliis conduct towards the Samians, in resentment of a former injury. When Amphicrates* reigned at Saraos, he had carried on a war against the ^gi- neta3, by which they materially suffered ; this, however, they severely retaliated. LX. I have been thus particular in my ac- count of the Samians, because this people pro- duced the greatest monuments"" of art wliicli are ^5 Dkti/nna.'] — Diana was worshipped in Crete, indiflerenlly under the name of Dyctynna and of Britoniartis. Britu, in the Cretan language, meant sweet, and martis, a virgin. Britoniartis was also the name of a virgin greatly bt loved by Diana; and what is said by Diodorus Sicidiis on the subject, seems most worthy of attention. His story is this : — Dictyiina was born in Ca3ron ; she invented hunters toils and nets, and thence her name. She was the daughter of Jupiter, which renders it e.xceedingly improbable that she should be obliged to fly from INIinos, and leap into the sea, whei-e she was caught in some fishers nets. The Mons Dictynnieus of Pliny is now called Cape Spada. — T. * This prince is mentioned by no other author. 66 The greatest tnunumeiits.^ — Of these monuments some vestiges are still to be seen; cciibull 'rou;neloit. i. :j14. Port 220 T H A L I A. to be seen in Greece. They have a mountain Avliicli is one hundred and fifty orgyise in height ; they have made a passage entirely through this, the length of which is seven stadia, it is moreover eight feet high, and as many wide. By the side of this there is also an artificial canal, which in like manner goes (juite through the monntain, and though only three feet in breadth, is twenty cubits deep. This, by the means of pipes, con- veys to the city the waters of a copious spring'''. Tigaiii is in form of a halfmoon, and regards the south - east; its left horn is that famous Jettee which Herodotus reckoned amongst the three wonders of Samos. This work, at that time of day, is an evidence of the Samians application to maritime matters. C7 Cuploufi spruig-l — On the lei't of the dale, near to the aqueduct which crosses it, are certain caverns, the entrance of some of them artiricially cut. In all appearance some of these arlilicial caverns were what Herodotus says were ranked among the most wonderful performances of the Greek nation. The beautiful spring which tempted them to go upon so great a work, is doubtless that of Metelinous, the best in the island, the disposition of the place proving per- fectly favourable, the moment thoy had conquered the dif- ficulty of boring it; but in all probability they weie not exact enough in levelling the ground, for they were obliged to dig a canal of twenty cubits deep for carrying ihc spring to the place designed. There mubt have been bonie mistake in this passage of Herodotus; foi" neither the Samians nor any other people could make a canal forty feet deep by only three wide. Some five hundred paces from the sea, and almost the like distance from the river Imbrasis to Cape Cera, are the luins of the famous temple of the Samian Juno. But for Hero- T H A L I A. 221 This is their first work, and constructed hy Eu- paUnus, the son of Naustrophiis, an inhabitant of Megara. Their second is a mole, which pro- jects from the harbour into the sea, and is two stadia or more in length, and about twenty or- gyise in height. Their last performance was a temple, which exceeds in grandeur all that I have seen. This structure was first commenced by a native of the country, whose name was Klicocus*'", son of Phileus. LXI. Wliilst Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, passed his time in iEgypt, committing various excesses, two magi, who were brothers, and one dotus we should never have known the name of the architect. He employed a very particular order of columns, as may be now seen. It is indeed neither better nor worse than the Ionian order in its infancy, void of that beauty which it after- wards acquired. — Thus far Tournefort. Its ancient names were Parthenias, Anthemus, and Me- lamphissus. It was the ijirth-place of Pytb.agoras, and the school of Epicurus. Pococke says, tliat there are no remains which he could prevail upon himself to believe to belong to this canal. He adds, that the inhabitants are remarkably pro- fligate and poor. Tournefort makes a similar remark. There are no disciples of Pythagoras, observes the Frenchman, now left in Samos ; the modern Samians are no more fond of fast- ing, than they are lovers of silence. — T. ^^ Rkcrcus.^ — This Rhoecus was not only a skilful architect, but he farther invented, in conjunction with Theodorus of Samos, the art of making moulds with clay, long before the Bacchiades had been driven from Corinth; they were also the first who made casts in brass, of which they formed ooo T H AL I A. of wliom Cambyscs liad left in Persia a:^ tlic ma- iiao-er of his domestic concerns, excited a revolt against him. i'he death of Smerdis, which had been stndiourdy kept secret, and was known to very few of the Persians, who in general believed that he was alive, was a circnm stance to which the last mentioned of these magi had been privy, and of which he determined to avail himself His brotlier, wlio, as we have related, joined with him in tliis business, not only resembled in person % but bore tlic very name of the young prince, the son of Cyrus, who had been put to death by the order of his brother Cambysos. This man, Pa- tizithes, the other magus, publicly introduced and placed upon the royal throne, having previously statues. Pausanias relates the same fact, witli this addition, that upon a pedestal hehind the altar of Diana, called Pro- tothenia, there is a statue by Rhucus : it is a woman in bronze, said Ijy the I'Lphesians to be that of Night. He had two sons, Telecles and Theodorus, both ingenious statuaries. — Lurcher. fi9 Resembled in person.^ — Similar historical incidents will here occur to the most common reader, there having been no state whose annals are come down to us, in which, from the similitude of person, factious individuals have not ex- cited commotions. In the Roman government a false Pom- pey and a false Drusus claim our attention, because one exercised the political sagacity of Cicero, the other em- ployed the pen of Tacitus. Neither have we in our own country been without similar impostors, the examples of which must be too fan)iliar lo require insertion here. If other examples be thought necessary, not many years have passed since the Russian empire was nearly overturned by a false Demetrius. — T. T HA L I A. 223 instructed him in the part he was to pcrfwrm. Having done tliis, he sent messengers to dif- ferent places, and one in particular to the ^'Egyp- tian army, ordering them to ohey Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, alone. LXIL These orders were every where obeyed. The messenger who came to ^"Egypt found Cam- byses with the army, at Echatana, in Syria. He entered into the midst of the troops'*', and exe- '^ Into the midst of the troops.'] — It may to an English reader at first sight seem extraordinary that any person should dare to execute such a commission as this, and should venture himself on such a business amongst the troops of a man whose power had been so long established, and whose cruelty- must have been notorious. But the per- sons of heralds, as the functions they were to perform were the most important possible, were on all occasions sacred. Homer more than once calls them the sacred ministers of gods and men ; they denounced war, and proclaimed peace. It has been a matter of dispute amongst the learned from whence this sanctity was conferred on them ; they were said to be descended from Ceryx, the son of ]Mercury, and under the protection of that god. This office, in x\thens and Sparta, was hereditary. In Athens, as I have observed, the heralds were said to be derived from Ceryx; in Sparta from Talthybius, the celebrated herald of Agamemnon. They usually carried a staff of laurel in their liands, sometimes of olive, round this two serpents wei'e twisted. To what an extreme this reverence for the persons of ambassadors or heralds was carried, will appear from the book Polymnia, chap. 134, It is almost unnecessary to add, that in modern times the persons of ambassadors are in like manner deemed sacred, unless the treatment which in case of war they re- 224 T II A I. I A. cutcd the commission wliich had been <;-ivcn him. When Cambyses heard tliis, he was not aware of any fallacy, but imagined that Prexaspes, whom he had sent to put Smerdis to death, had neg- lected to obey his commands. " Prexaspes," said the king, " thou hast not fulfilled my orders.'* " Sir," he replied, " you are certainly deceived ; " it is impossible that your brother should rebel " against you, or occasion you the smallest trou- " ble. I not only executed your orders concern- " ing Smerdis, but I buried him with my own " hands. If the dead can rise again, you may " expect also a rebellion from Astyages the " iMede; but if things go on in their usual course, " you can have nothing to apprehend from your " brother. I would recommend, therefore, that " you send for this herald, and demand by what " authority he claims our allegiance to bmerdis." LXIII. This advice was agreeable to Cam- byses : the person of the herald was accordingly seized, and he was thus addressed by Prexaspes : " You say," my friend, " that you come from " Smerdis, the son of Cyrus ; but I would advise ceive at Constantinople be deemed an exception. The mo- ment tlmt war is declared against any foreign power, the re- presentative of that power is seized, and sent as a prisoner to the Black Tower. Neither is the case much better in France, where the Portuguese minister was not long since thrown into the common jail, and the ministers of other foreign courts, not excepting our own, shamefully insulted. — T. T H A I. I A. 225 " you to be cautious, as your safety will depend " upon your speaking the truth ; tell me, there- " fore, did Smerdis himself intrust you with this " commission, or did you receive it from some " one of his officers ?" " I must confess," re- plied the herald, " that since the departure of " Cambyses on this ^Egyptian expedition, I have " never seen Smerdis, the son of Cyrus. I re- " ceived my present commission from the magus " to whom Cambyses intrusted the management " of his domestic affairs ; he it was who told me " that Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, commanded " me to execute this business." This was the sincere answer of the herald ; upon which, Cam- byses thus addressed Prexaspes : " I perceive *' that, like a man of integrity, you performed " my commands, and have been guilty of no " crime : but what Persian, assuming the name " of Smerdis, has revolted against me?" " Sir," answered, Prexaspes, " I beheve I comprehend " the whole of this business : the magi have " excited this rebellion against you, namely, " Patizithes, to whom you intrusted the ma- " nagement of your household, and Smerdis, his " brother." LXIV. As soon as Cambyses heard the name of Smerdis, he was impressed with conviction of the truth ; and he immediately perceived the real signification of the dream in which he had seen Vol. II. Q 22G T II A L 1 A. Smci'dis seated on the royal throne, and toucliing the firmaineiit witli his head. Ackiiowdedgiug- that he liad destroyed his brother without any just cause, he lamented him with tears. After indulirino' for a wliile in the extremest sorrow, which a sense of his misfortunes })rompted, he leaped liastily upon his horse, determining to lead his army instantly to Susa, against the rebels. In doing this, the sheath fell from his sword'', 71 The sheath fell from his sword ^ — The first swords were probably made of bras? ; for, as Lucretius observes, Et prior a?ris erat quam ferri cognitus usus. It has been remarked, on the following passage of Virgil, iEratffique micant pella?, micat apneas ensis, that the poet only uses brass poetically instead of iron ; this however, seems forced and improbable. More anciently, which indeed appears from Homer, the sword was worn over the shoulder ; if, therefore, the 'attitude of Cambyses in the act of mounting his horse be considered, his receiving the wound here described does not appear at all unlikely. In contradiction to modern custom, the Romans sometimes wore two swords, one on each side ; when they wore but one it was usually, though not always, on the right side. On this subject, see Montfaucon, where different specimens of an- cient swords may be seen. The Persian swords were/ called acinaces, or scymetars. — T. In order to see how the ancient Persians wore their swords, we have only to look at the figures on the ruins of l'ersej)olis, where we shall see the swords, or lalher daggers, on the right side. In all our more ancient monuments also, there is a sword at the left, and a dagger at the right side. T H A I. I A. 227 •which, being tlius naked, wounded him in the thigh. The wound was in the very place in which he had before struck Apis, the deity of the /Egyptians. As soon as the blow appeared to be mortal, Cambyses anxiously inquired the name of the place where he was : they told him it was called Ecbatana. An oracle from Butos had warned him that he should end his life at Ecbatana; this he understood of Ecbatana^" of the Medes, where all his treasures were depo- sited, and where he conceived he was to die in his old age. The oracle, however, spoke of the 72 Ecbatana.^ — Ctesias makes this prince die at Babylon ; but this is not the only place in which he contradicts Hero- dotus.— Lurcher. It appears by the context, that this Ecbatana was in Syria ; an obscure place, probably, and unheard of by Cambyses till this moment. A similar fiction of a prophecy occurs in our own history. Henry the Fourth had been told he was to die in Jerusalem, but died in the Jerusalem-chamber at West- minster. Which tale Shakespeare has immortahzed by noticing it. It hath been prophesy 'd to me many years I should not die but in Jerusalem, Which vainly I suppos'd the Holy Land. But bear me to that chamber, there I '11 lie, In that Jerusalem shall Harry die. This fiction was common in all ages, and indeed Shake- speare has three or four others. Batana;a in Palestine marks the place of this Syrian Ecbatana. — St-e D'Aivtille. q2 228 T II A L I A. Syrian Ecbatana. When he learned the name of the town, the vexation arising from tlie rebel- lion of the magus, and the pain of his wound, restored him to his proper senses. " Tliis," he exclaimed, remembering the oracle, " is doubt- " less the place, in which Cambyses, son of " Cyrus, is destined to die." LXA^. On the twentieth day after tlie above event, he convened the more illustrious of the Persians who were with liim, and thus addressed them : " What has happc^ied to me, compels me " to disclose to you wliat I anxiously desired to " conceal. Whilst I was in yEgypt, [ beheld "in my sleep a vision, which I could wish had " never appeared to me. A messenger seemed " to arrive from home, informing me that Smer- ** dis, sitting on the royal throne, touched the " heavens with his head. It is not in the power " of men to counteract destiny; but fearing that " my brother would deprive mc of my kingdom, " I yielded to passion ratlicr than to prudence.* *' Infatuated as I was, I dispatched Prexaspes " to Susa, to put Smcrdis to death. After this " great crime, I lived with more confidence, be- " lieving that, Smerdis being dead, no one else *' would rise up against mc. But my ideas of " the future were fallacious ; I have murdered " my brother, a crime ecpially unnecessary and " atrocious, and am nevertheless deprived of my T II A L I A. 229 " power. It was Smerdis the magus'', whom " the divinity pointed out to me in my dream, 73 Smerdis the magit.'i.] — Mr. Richardson, in his Dissertation on the Language, &c. of Eastern Nations, speaking of the disagreement between the Grecian and Asiatic history of Persia, makes the following remarks : From this period (610 before Christ) till the Macedonian conquest, vve have the history of the Persians as given us by the Greeks, and the history of the Persians as written by themselves. Between these classes of writers we might na- turally expect some diflerence of facts, but we should as naturally look for a few great lines which might mark some similarity of story : yet from every research which 1 have had an opportunity to make, there seems to be nearly as nuich resemblance between the annals of England and Japan, as between the European and Asiatic relations of the same empire. The names and numbers of their kings have no analogy; and in regard tc. the most splendid facts of the Greek historians, the Persians are entirely silent. We have no mention of the great Gyrus, nor of any king of Persia who in the events of his reign can apparently be forced into a similitude. We have no Croesus, king of Lydia; not a syl- lable of Cambyses, or of his frantic expedition against the j^^ltbi- opians. Smerdis IMagus, and the succession of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, by the neighing of his horse, are to the Persians circumstances equally unknown, as the numerous as- sassinatit)ns recorded by the Greeks, &c. To dt) away, at least in part, ariy impression to the prejudice of Grecian history, which may be made by perusing the above remarks of Mr. Richardson, the r eader is presented with the following sentiments of Mr. Gibbon : " So little has been preserved of Eastern history before Mahomet,' that the modern Persians are totally ignorant of the victory of Sapor, an event so glorious to their nation." The incident here mentioned is the victory of Sapor over Valerian the Roman emperor, who was defeated, taken pri- 230 T H A L I A. " and wlio has now taken arms against me. " Things being thus circumstanced, it becomes " you to remember that Smerdis, the son of " Cyrus, is actually dead, and that the two magi, " one with whom I left the care of my household, " and Smerdis his brother, are the men who now " claim your obedience. He, whose office it " would have been to have revenged on these " magi any injuries done to me, has unjustly " perished by those who were nearest to him : *' but since he is no more, I must now tell you, " O Persians ! what I would have you do when *' I am dead. — I entreat you all, by those god$ " who watch over kings, and chiefly you who are " of the race of the Achasmenidcs, that you will " never permit this emjnre to revert to the " Mcdes. If by any stratagem they shall have '* seized it, by stratagem do you recover it. If " tliey have by force obtained it, do you by force " wrest it from them. If you shall obey my ad- " vice, may the earth give you its fruits in abun- " dance! may you ever be free, and your wives " and your flocks prolific! If you do not obey " me, if you neither recover, nor attempt to re- soner, and died in captivity. This happened in the year 260 of the Christian a^ra. Mahomet was born in the year 571 (jf the same a;ra ; if, therefore, Mr. Gibbon's observation be well founded, which it appears to be, ISIr. llichardson's i)bjcctions fall to the ground. It may be observed, indeed, that Richardson has discovered a great want of judgment in his account of the I'ersian history. — T. THALIA. 231 " cover the empire, may the reverse of my wishes " bcfiil you, and may every Persian meet a fate " like mine ! ' LXVI. Cambyses, having thus spoken, be- wailed his misfortunes. When the Persians saw the king thus involved in sorrow, they tore their garments, and expressed their grief aloud. After a very short interval, the bone became infected, the whole of the thigh mortified, and death en- sued. Thus died Cambyses, son of Cyrus, after a reign of seven years and five months'^ leaving no offspring, male or female. The Persians who were present could not be persuaded that the magi had assumed the supreme authority, but rather believed that what Cambyses had asserted concerning the death of Smerdis, was prompted by his hatred of that prince, and his wish to ex- cite the general animosity of the Persians against him. They were, therefore, generally satisfied that it was really Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, who had assumed the sovereignty. To which they were the more inclined, because Prexaspes after- wards positively denied that he had put Smerdis to death. When Cambyses was dead, he could not safely have confessed that he had killed the son of Cyrus. 74 Seveti years and fire months.^ — Clemens Ale xandrinus. makes him reign ten years. — Larc/icr. 232 THALIA. LXVII. After the death of Cambyses, the magus, by the favour of his name, pretending to be Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, reigned in secmity during the seven months, which completed the eighth year of the reign of Cambyses. In this period he distinguished the various dependents on his power by his great miuiificence, so that after his death he was seriously regretted by all the inhabitants of Asia, except the Persians. He commenced his reign by publishing every where an edict which exempted his subjects, for the space of three years, both from tribute and mili- tary service, LXVII I. In tlie eighth month he was de- tected in the following manner : Otanes, son of Pharnaspes, was of the first rank of tlie Persians, both with regard to birth and affluence. This nobleman was the first who suspected that this was not Smerdis, the son of Cyrus ; and was in- duced to suppose who he really v»'as, from his never quitting the citadel, and from his not in- viting any of the nobles to his presence. Sus- picious of the imposture, he took tliese measures : He liad a dauglitcr named Plia^dyma, wlio had been married to Cambyses, and whom, with the other wives of the late king, the usurper had taken to liimsclf Otanes sent a message to her, to know \\hetlier she cohabited witli Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, or with any other person. She THALIA. 233 returned for answer, " that she could not tell, " as she had never seen Smerdis, the son of " Cyrus, nor did she know the person with " whom she cohabited." Otanes sent a second time to his daughter : " If," says he, " you do " not know the person of Smerdis, the son of " Cyrus, enquire of Atossa who it is with whom " you and she cohabit, for she must necessarily *' know her brother." To wliich she thus re- plied, " I can neither speak to Atossa, nor in- " deed see any of the women that live with him. " Since this person, whoever he is, came to the " throne, the women have all been kept sepa- " rate ''.' "^^ Kept separate.^ — Chardin, speaking of the death of a king of Persia, and the intemperate grief of his wives, says, that the reason why the women upon such occasions are so deeply afflicted, is not only for the loss of the king their hus- band, but for the loss of that shadow of liberty which th^y enjoyed during his life ; for no sooner is the prince laid in his tomb, but they are all shut up in particular houses. Tourne- fort tells us, that after the death of the sultun at Constanti- nople, the wonien whom he honoured with his embraces, and their eldest daughters, are removed into the old seraglio of Constantinople ; the younger are sometimes left for the new emperor, or are married to the bashas. It appears that in tlie East, from the remotest tinjes, fe- males have been jealously secluded from the other sex. Nevertheless, we learn from modern travellers, that this is done with some restrictions, and that they are not only suf- fered to communicate with each other, but on certain days to leave the haram or seraglio, and take their amusements abroad. Where 231. THALIA. liXIX. Tills reply more and more justified the suspicions of Otanes ; he sent, therefore, a third time to his daughter : " JNIy daughter," he observed, " it becomes you, who are nobly born, " to engage in a dangerous enterprizc, when " your father commands you. If this Smerdis'^ Where a plurality of wives is allowed, each, it should seem from Tournefort, has a distinct and separate apart- ment. " I was extremely at a loss," says he, " how to be- have to the great men of the East, when I was called in, and visited, as a physician, the apartments of their wives. These apartments are just like the dormitories of our religious, and at every door I found an arm covered with gauze, thrust out through a small loop-hole, made on purpose : at first I fancied they w&re arms of wood or brass, to serve for sconces to light up candles in at night; but it surprized me when I was told I must cure the persons to whom these arms be- longed." The Easterns listen with much astonishment to the familiarity prevailing betwixt the sexes in Europe. \Vhen told that no evil results from this, they answer with a proverb, '' Bring butter too near the fire, and you will hardly keep it from melting." — T. "6 If this Smcrclis.~\ — That Cambyses was the Ahasuerus, and Smerdis the Artaxerxes, that obstructed the work of the temple, is plain from hence, that they are said in Scripture to be the kings of Persia that reigned between the time of Cyrus and the time of that Darius by whose decree the temple was finished ; but, that Darius being Darius Ilystaspes, and none reigning between Cyrus and that Darius in Persia but Cambyses and Smerdis, it must follow from hence, that none but Cambyses and Smerdis could be the hasucrus and Artaxerxes, who are said in Ezia to have put a stop to this work.— Pridcaux. T II A L I A. 035 " be not the son of Cyrus, but the man whom I " suspect, he ought not, ])ossessmg your person, " and the sovereignty of Persia, to escape with " impunity. Do this, therefore — when next you " shall be admitted to his bed, and shall observe that he is asleep, examine whether he has any ears ; if he has, you may be secure you are with Smerdis, the son of Cyrus ; but if he has " not, it can be no other than Smerdis, one of " the magi." To this Phajdyma replied, " That " she would obey him, notwithstanding the " danger she incurred ; being well assured, that " if he had no ears, and should discover her " in endeavouring to kno\v this, she should be "• instantly put to death/' Cyrus had in his life- time deprived this Smerdis of his ears " for some atrocious crime. Phffidyma complied in all respects with the 77 This Smerdis of his ears.l —The discovery of this im- posture was long celebrated in Peisia as an annual festival. By reason of the great slaughter of the magians then made, it was called magophonia. It was also from this time that they first had the name of magians, which signified the cropt-eared, which was then given them on account of this impostor, who was thus cropt. JNlige-gush signified, in the language of the country then in use, one that had his ears cropt; and from a ringleader of that sect who was thus cropt, the author of the famous Arabic lexicon called Camus, tells us they all had this name given them; and what Herodotus and Justin, and other authors, write of this Smerdis, plainly shews tliiit he was the nian. ^—Prickatix. 236 T II A L I A. injunctions of her father. The wives of the Per- sians sleep with their hushands by turns'". When this lady next slept with the magiis, as soon as she saw him in a profound sleep, she tried to touch his ears, and being perfectly satisfied that he had none, as soon as it was day, she conunu- nicated the intelligence to her father. LXX. Otanes instantly revealed the secret to Aspathines and Gobryas, two of the noblest of the Persians, upon whose fidelity he could de- pend, and who had themselves suspected the im- posture. It was agreed that each should disclose the business to the friend in whom he most confided. Otanes therefore chose Intaphernes ; Gobryas, Megabyzus ; and Aspathines, Hydarnes. The conspirators being thus six in number, Darius, 78 The wives of the Persians ship zcilh t/ic/r husbands hi/ iiirns.^ — ^By the Mahometan law, the Persians, Turks, and indeed uU true behevers, are permitted to have wives of three dirterent descriptions ; those whom they espouse, those whom' they hire, and those whom they purchase. Of the first liind they are limited to four, of the two hist they may have as many hls they please or can all'ord. Amongst the tingidarities sanctified by llie Alcoran, the following is not the least: a woman legally es|)oused may insist on a divorce from her husband, if he is in)poteiit, if he is given to unnatural enjoy- ment, or, to use Tournefort's expression, if he does not pay his tribute upon Thursday and Friday night, whicii are the times consecrated to the conjugal duties.-:— 7'. T II A I. I A. 237 son of Hystaspes, arrived at Siisa, from Persia, where his father was governor ; when they instantly agreed to make him also an associate. I-jXXI. These seven met'-\ and after mutnal vows of fidelity consulted together. As soon as Darius was to speak, he thus addressed his con- federates: " I was of opinion that the death of Smerdis, son of Cyrus, and the usurpation of the magus, were circumstances known only to myself, and my immediate purpose in coming hither, was to accomplish the usurper's death. But since you are also acquainted with the matter, I think that all delay will be dangerous, and that we should instantly execute our intentions." " Son of Hystaspes," replied Otancs, " born of a noble parent, you seem the inheritor of your father's virtue ; nevertheless, be not precipitate, but let us enter on this business with caution : for my own part, I am averse to undertake any thing, till we shall have strengthened our party." " My friends," resumed Darius, " if you follow the advice of Otanes, your ruin is inevitable. The hope of reward will induce some one to betray your 79 These seven met^ — Mithridates, king of Pontus, who afterwards gave so much trouble to the Romans, was de- scended from one of these conspirators : See book vii. chap. ii. — Larcker. L>38 T n A L I A. " designs to the magus. An ent'jrprize like this " sliould be acconiplislied by yourselves, dis- " daining all assistance. But since you have " revealed the secret, and added me to your " party, let us this very day put our designs in " execution ; for I declare, if this day pass with- " out our fulfilling our intentions, no one shall " to-morrow betray me; I will myself disclose " the conspiracy to the magus.'' LXXII. When Otanes observed the ardour of Darius ; " Since," he replied, " you will not *' suffer us to defer, but precipitate us to the " termination of our purpose, explain how we " shall obtain entrance into the palace, and at- " tack the usurpers. That there are guards re- " gularly stationed, if you have not seen them " yourself, you must have known from others ; " how shall we elude these?" "There are " many circumstances, Otanes," returned Da- rius, " which we cannot so well explain by our " words as by our actions. There are others " which may be made very plausible by words, " but arc capable of no splendour in the cxe- *' cution. You cannot suppose that it will be *' diihcult for us to pass the guards ; wlio among " them will not be impelled by reverence of our " persons, or fear of our authority, to admit " us ? Besides this, I am furnished with an " undeniable excuse ; I can say that I am just T H A L I A. 239 " arrived from Persia, and liavc business from my " father with the king. If a falsehood must be ** spoken''^, let it be so. They who are sincere, " and they who are not, have the same object in ** view. Falsehood is prompted by views of in- " terest, and the language of truth is dictated by " some promised benefit, or by the hope of in- " spiring confidence. So that, in fact, these are " only two different paths to the same end : if no " emolument were proposed, the sincere man ^^ If a falsehood must be spoken.'] — This morality, says Larcher, is not very rigid ; but it ought, he continues, to be remembered, that Herodotus is here speaking of falsehood which operates to no one's injury. Bryant, on the contrary, remarks, that we may rest assured these are the author's own sentiments, though attributed to another person; hence, he adds, we must not wonder if his veracity be sometimes called in question. But when we remember that one of the first rudiments of Persian education was to speak the truth, the little scruple with which Darius here adopts a falsehood, must appear very remarkable. Upon this subject of sincerity. Lord Shaftesbury has some very curious remarks, " The chief of ancient critics," says he, " extols Homer above all things for understanding how to lye in perfection. His lyes, according to that master's opinion, and the judgment of the gravest and most venerable writers, were in themselves the justest moral truths, and exhibitive of the best doctrine and instruction in life and manners." It is well remarked by one of the ancients, though I do not remember which, that a violation of truth implies a contempt of God, and feaj- of man. Yet the gravest of our moralists and divines have al- lowed that there may be occasions in which a deviation froia strict truth is venial. — T. 240 T II A L I A. " would be false, and the false man sincere. As " to the guards, he who suffers us to pass shall " hereafter be remembered to his advantage ; he " who opposes us shall be deemed an enemy: " let us, therefore, now hasten to the palace, and " execute our purpose.'' LXXIII. When he had finished, Gobryas spake as follows: "My friends, to recover the " empire will indeed be glorious ; but if we fail, " it will be nobler to die, than for Persians to " live in subjection to a Mede, and he too de- " prived of his ears. You who were present at the " last hours of Cambyses, cannot but remember " the imprecations which he uttered against the " Persians, if they did not attempt the recovery " of the empire. ^Ve then refused him atten- " tion, thinking him influenced by malignity and " resentment; but now I at least second the " proposal of Darius, nor would I have this as- " sembly break up, but to proceed instantly against " the magus." The sentiments of Gobryas gave universal satisfaction. liXXIV. During the interval of this consulta- tion, the two magi had together determined to make a friend of Prexaspes : they were aware that he had been injured by Cambyses, who had slain his son with an arrow ; and that he alone was privy to the death of Smerdis, tho son of THALIA. 241 Cyrus, having been his executioner; they were conscious also that he was highly esteemed by the Persians. They accordingly sent for him, and made him the most liberal promises ; they made liim swear that he would on no account disclose the fallacy which they practised on the Persians ; and they promised him, in reward of his fidelity, rewards without number. Prexaspes engaged to comply with their wishes ; they then told him of their intention to assemble the Per- sians beneath the tower ^^ which was the royal residence, from whence they desired him to declare aloud that he who then sate on the throne of Persia was Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, and no other. They were induced to this measure, from a consideration of the great authority of Prexaspes, and because he had frequently declared that he had never put Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, to death, but that he was still alive. LXXV. Prexaspes agreed to comply with all that they proposed ; the magi accordingly assembled the Persians, and leading Prexaspes 8^ Beneath the to-wer.'\ — This was the citadel. Anciently the kings lodged here for security. In chap. Ixviii. Hero- dotus observes that the magus would not stir from the cita- del; and in chap. Ixxix. he says that the conspirators left behind in the citadel such of their friends as were wounded in attacking the magi.] — Larcher. Vol. II. R 24^ T H A L I A. to tlie top of the tower, commanded him to make an oration. He, without paying the least attention to the promises he had made, recited the genealogy of the family of Cyrns, beginning with Achffimenes. AVhen he came to Cyrus himself, he enumerated the services which that prince had rendered the Persians. He then made a full discovery of the truth, excusing himself for con- cealing it so long, from the danger which the revealing it would have incurred, but that it was now forced from him. He assured them that he actually had killed Smerdis, by the order of Cambyses, and that the magi now exercised the sovereign authority. When he had imprecated many curses*^^' upon the Persians, if they did not ^^ Imprecated many c(/;se*.] — In ancient times, and amongst the Orientals in particular, these kind of imprecations were very frequent, and supposed to have an extraordinary in- fluence. The curse of a father was believed to be particu- larly fatal ; and the Furies were always thought to execute the imprecations of parents upon disobedient children. When Joshua destroyed Jericho, he imprecated a severe curse upon whoever should attempt to rebuild it. This was at a distant period of time accomplished. We have two examples of solemn imprecations on record, which have always been deemed woitliy of attention. The one occurred in ancient Home: when Crassus, in defiance of the auspices, prepared to make an expedition against the Parthians. The tribune Ateius waited for him at the gates of the cit}', with an altar, a fire, and a sacrifice ready prepared, and with the most THALIA. 243 attempt the recovery of their rights, and take ven- geance upon the usurpers, he threw himself from the tower. — Such was the end of Prexaspes, a man who through every period of his life merited esteem ^^. LXXVT. The seven Persians, having deter- mined instantly to attack the magi, proceeded, after imploring the aid of the gods, to execute horrid solemnity devoted him to destruction. The other example is more modern : it is the imprecation which Aver- roes, the famous Arabian philosopher, uttered against his son. As it is less generally known, 1 shall recite it at length : Averroes was one day seriously conversing with some grave friends, when his son, in a riotous manner, intruded himself, accompanied by some dissolute companions. The old man, viewing him with great indignation, spoke two verses to the following effect : " Thy own beauties could not content thee, thou hast stripped the wild goat of his beauties ; and they who are as beautiful as thyself admire thee. Thou hast got his wanton heart, his lecherous eyes, and his senseless head : but to-morrow thou shalt find thy father will have his pushing horns. Cursed be all extravagancies ! when I was young, I sometimes punished my father ; now I am old, I can- not punish my son; but I beg of God to deprive him rather of life, ttan suffer him to be disobedient." It is related that the young man died within ten months. — T. 83 Merited esteem.] — Upon this incident M. Larcher re- marks, that this last noble action of his life but ill corre- sponds with the mean and dastardly behaviour which Prex- aspes had before exhibited to the murderer of his son. Larcher, however, forgets the profound veneration which the Persians invariably paid to their sovereigns. R 2 241 T H A L I A. their purpose. They were at first ignorant of the fate of Prexaspes, but they learned it as they went along. They withdrew for a while to deliberate together ; they who sided with Otanes, thought that their enterprize should be deferred, at least during the present tumult of affairs. The friends of Darius, on the con- trary, were averse to any delay, and were anxious to execute what they had resolved, immediately. AVhilst they remained in this suspense, they observed seven pair of hawks '^^ which, pursuing two pair of vultures, beat and severely tore them. At this sight, the conspirators came immediately into the designs of Darius ; and. ^* Seven pair of hazvks.] — The superstition of the ancients, with respect to the sight or flight of birds, has often exer- cised the sagacity and acuteness of philosophers and scholars. Some birds furnished omens from their chattering, as crows, owls, &c.; others from the direction in which they flew, as eagles, vultures, hawks, bcc. An eagle seen to the right was fortunate. — The sight of an eagle was supposed to foretel to Tarquinius Priscus, that he should obtain the crown ; it predicted, also, the conquests of Alexander; and the loss of their dominions to Tarquin the Proud, and Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse ; innumerable other examples must here occur to every reader. A raven seen on the left hand was unfortunate : Saepe sinistra cava praedixit ab ilice cornix. — Firgil. Upon the subject of the auspicia, the most satisfactory in- lelligence is to be obtained from the treatise of Cicero de Divinatione. From the Latin word auspicia, from axes in- spicere, comes our English word auspicious. — T, THALIA. 245 relying on the omen of the birds, advanced boldly to the palace. LXXV^II. On their arrival at the gates, it happened as Darius had foreseen. The guards, unsuspicious of what was intended, and awed by their dignity^' of rank, who, in this instance, seemed to act from a divine impulse, without any questions, permitted them to enter. As soon as they came to the interior part of the palace, they met with the eunuchs, who were employed as the royal messengers ; these asked their business, and at the same time threatened the guards for suf- fering them to enter. On their opposing their farther entrance, the conspirators drew their swords, and, encouraging each other, put the eunuchs to death ; from hence they instantly rushed to the inner apartments. LXXVIII. Here the two magi happened to ^^ Awed by their dignity. ~\ — The most memorable instance in history, of the effects of this kind of impression, is that of the soldier sent into the prison to kill Caius JNIarius : — The story is related at length by Plutarch. When the man entered the prison with his sword drawn, " Fellow," exclaimed the stern Roman, " darest thou kill Caius Marius?" Upon which the soldier dropped his sword, and rushed out of doors. This fact, however, being no where mentioned by Cicero, who speaks very largely on the subject of INIarius, has given Dr. Middleton reason to suppose, that the whole is a fabulous narration. — T. 946 THALIA. be, in consultation about what was to be done in consequence of the conduct of Prexaspes. As soon as they perceived the tumult, and heard the cries of the eunuclis, they ran towards them, and preparing in a manly manner to defend themselves, the one seized a bow and the other a lance. As the conspirators drew near to the attack, the bow became useless ; but the other magus, who was armed with the lance, wounded Aspathines in the thigh, and deprived Inta- phernes of one of his eyes, tliough the blow was not fatal. The magus who found his bow of no service retreated to an adjoining apartment, into which he was followed by Darius and Gobryas. This latter seized the magus round the waist ''^; but as this happened in the dark, Darius stood in hesitation, fearing to strike, lest he should e6 Round the ivaist?\ — Not unlike to this was the manner in which David Rizio, the favourite of the unfortunate ISIary queen of Scots, was murdered. Rizio was at supper with his mistress, attended by a few domestics, when the king, who had chosen this place and opportunity to satisfy his vengeance, entered the apartment with Ruthven and his accomplices. The wretched favourite, conceiving himself the victim whose death was required, flew for protection to the queen, whom he seized round the waist. This attitude did not save him from the dagger of Ruthven ; and before he could be dragged to the next apartment, the rage of his enemies put an end to his life, piercing his body with fifty-six wounds. — See the account in Robertson's History of Scotland, vol.i. .'3.5().— T. THALIA. 247 wound Gobryas. When Gobryas perceived this, he inquired why he was thus inactive : when Darius replied, " tliat it was from his fear of " wounding his friend ;" " Strike," exclaimed Gobryas, " though you should pierce botli." Darius instantly complied, and ran his sword through the magus. LXXIX. Having thus slain the magi "', they instantly cut off their heads. Their two friends ^' Tlic ivagi^ — It may not in this place be impertinent, to give a succinct account ot the magi or magians, as selected from various writers on the subject. Ihis sect originating in the East, abominating all images, worshipped Gt)d only by fire. Their chief doctrine was, that there were two principles, one of which was the cause of all good, the other the cause of all evil ; the former is represented by light, the other by darkness ; and that from these two all things in the world were made. The good god they named Yazdan or Ormund ; the evil god, Ahranian : the former is by the Greeks named Oramasdes, the latter Arimanius. Concern- ing these two gods, some held both of them to have been from eternity ; others contended the good being only to be eternal, the other created : both agreed in this, that there will be a continual opposition between these two till the end of the world, when the good god shall overcome the evil god ; and that afterwards each shall have his world to him- self, the good god have all good men with him, the evil god all wicked men. Of this system, Zoroaster was the tirst founder, whom Hyde and Prideaux make contemporary w.th Darius Mystaspes, but whose jera, as appears from Moyle, the Greek writers of the age of Darius make many hundred years before their own time. After giving a concise but animated account of the theology of Zoroaster, Mi;.(dbbon S48 THALIA. who were wounded were left behind, as well to guard the citadel, as on account of their inability has this foolish and preposterous remark : " Every mode of religion, to make a deep arid lasting impression on the human mind, must exercise our ohedience, by enjoining practices of devotion for which we can assign no reason ; and must acquire our esteem by inculcating moral duties, analogous to the dic- tates of our own hearts." The religion of Zoroaster was abun- dantly provided with the former, and possessed a sufficient portion of the latter. At the age of puberty the faithful Persian was invested with a mysterious girdle ; from which moment the most indifferent action of his life was sanctified by prayers, ejaculations, and genuflexions, the omission of which was a grievous sin. The moral duties, however, were required of the disciple of Zoroaster, who wished to escape the perse- cution of Arimanius, or, as jNIr, Gibbon writes it, Ahriaian, and to live with Ormund or Ormusd in a blissful eternity, where the degree of felicity will be exactly proportioned to the degree of virtue and piety. In the lime of Theodosius the younger, the Christians enjoyed a full toleration in Persia; but, Abdas indiscreetly pulling down a temple in which the Persians worshipped tire, a persecution against the Chris- tians was excited, and prosecuted with unrelenting cruelty. The magi are still known in Persia, under the name of parsi or parses ; their superstition is contained in three books, named Zend, Pazend, and Vestna, said by themselves to be composed by Zerdascht, whom they confound with the pa- triarch Abraham. The Oriental Christians pretend, that the magi who adored Jesus Christ, were disciples of Zoroaster, who predicted to them the coming of the Messiah, and the new star which appeared at his bird. Upon this latter sub- ject a modern writer has ingeniously remarked, that the pre- sents which the magi made to Chrisi, indicated their esteem- ing him a royal child, notwithstanding his mean situation and appearance : they gave him gold, frankincense, and THALIA. 249 to follow them. The remaining five ran out into the public street, having the heads of the magi in their hands, and making violent outcries. They called aloud to the Persians, explaining what had happened, and exposing the heads of the usurpers ; at the same time, whoever of the magi appeared was instantly put to death. The Persians hear- ing what these seven noblemen had cfiected, and learning the imposture practised on them by the magi, were seized with the desire of imitating their conduct. Sallying forth Avitli drawn swords, they killed every magus whom they met ; and if night had not checked their rage, not one would have escaped. The anniversary of this day the Persians celebrate with great solemnity ; the fes- tival they observe is called the magophonia, or the slaughter of the magi. On this occasion no magus is permitted to be seen in public, they are obliged to confine themselves at home. LXXX. When the tumult had subsided, and an interval of five days was elapsed, the conspi- rators met to deliberate on the situation of affairs. Their sentiments, as delivered on this occasion. myrrh, such as the queen of Sheba presented to Solomon in his glory. It seems almost unnecessary to add, that from these magi or magians the English word 7nagic is derived : — See Prideaux, Gibbon, Bayle, Bibliolheque Orientale, and Ilarmer's Obser- vations on Passages of Scripture. — T. 250 T H A L I A. however they may want credit with many of the Greeks, were in fact as follows. — Otanes recom- mended a rcpuhlican form of government : " It *' does not," says he, " seem to me advisable, *' that the government of Persia *** should here- " after be entrusted to any individual person, " this being neither popular nor wise. We all " know the extreme lengths to which the arro- " gance of Cambyscs proceeded, and some of " us have felt its influence. How can that form " of government possibly be good, in which an " individual with impunity may indulge his pas- " sions, and which is apt to transport even the " best of men beyond the bounds of reason? " When a mau, naturally envious, attains grcat- " ness, he instantly becomes insolent : Insolence " and jealousy are the distinguishing vices of " tyrants, and when combined lead to tlie most ^^ Gorcrnriicnf of Persia.] — Machiavel. reasoning upon the conquests of Alexander the Great, and upon the unresisting submission which his successors experienced from the Persians, takes it for granted, that amongst the ancient Persians there was no distinction of nobihty. This, however, was by no means the case; and what INIr. Hume remarks of the Flo- rentine secretary was undoubtedly true, that he was far better acquainted with l^oman than with Greek authors : — See the Essay of Mr. llume, where he asserts that " Politics may be reduced to a science ;" with his note at the end of the volume, which contains an enumeration of various Persian noblemen of different periods, as well as a refutation of Machiavel's absurd positi:)n above stated. — T. THALIA. 251 " enormous crimes. He who is placed at the " summit of power, ought indeed to be a stranger *' to envy ; but we know, by fatal experience, " that the contrary happens. AVe know also, " that the worthiest citizens excite the jealousy " of tyrants, who are pleased only with the most " abandoned : they are ever prompt to listen to " the voice of calumny. If we pay them tem- *' perate respect, they take umbrage that we are " not more profuse in our attentions : if the re- " spect with which they are treated seem immo- " derate, they call it adulation. The severest " misfortune of all is, that they pervert the in- *' stitutions of their country, offer violence to " our females, and put tliose whom they dislike " to death, without the formalities of justice. " But a democracy in the first place bears the " honourable name of an equality"'^; the dis- 89 Eqiialit I/.']— The word in the original is i]iov, at once removes all difficulty. — T. 92 Their actions resemble the violence of a torrent.'] — Upon the subject of popular assemblies, the following remarks of M. de Lolme seem very ingenious, as well as just. " Those who compose a popular assembly are not ac- tuated, in the course of their deliberati;)ns, by any clear or precise view of any present or positive personal interest. As they see themselves lost as it were in the crowd of those who are called upon to exercise the same function with themselves; as they know that their individual vote will make no change in the public resolution, and that to what- ever side they may incUne, the general result will neverthe- less be the same, they do not undertake to enquire how far the things proposed to them agree with the whole of the laws already in being, or with the present circumstances of the state. As few among them have previously considered the subjects on which they are called upon to determine, very fev/ carry along with them any opinion or inclination of their own, and to which they are resolved to adhere. As, however, it is necessary at last to come to some resolution, the major part of them are determined, by reasons which 254 T H A L I A. " mocracy seems to involve the ruin of our coun- " try : let us, therefore, entrust the ffovernment " to a few individuals, selected for tlieir talents " and their virtues. I^et us constitute a part of " these ourselves, and from the exercise of autho- " rity so deposited, we may be justified in expect- " ing the happiest events." LXXXII, Darius was the third wlio delivered his opi]iion. " The sentiments of IMcgahyzus," he observed, " as they relate to a popular go- they would blush to pay any regard to on much less serious occasions : an unusual sight, a change of the ordinary place of assembly, a sudden disturbance, a rumour, are, amidst the general want of a spirit of decision, the siifficiens ratio of the determination of the greatest part; and from this assem- blage of separate wills, thus formed, hastily and without re- flection, a general will results, which is also without reflec- tion."— Constitution of England, 250, 251. Quod enim fretum, quem Euripum, tot motus, tantas et tarn varias habere putatis agitationes fluctuum, quantas perturba- tiones et quantos aestus habet ratio comitiorum. — Cicero Orat. pro Murana. Larcher has quoted the following remark of Cioguet, which it may be wondered that the vigilance of Bonaparte's satellites sufl'ered to pass. (1805.) The best writers of antiquity have invariably expressed themselves in favour of a monarcby. Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Isocrates, Cicero, Seneca, Tacitus, Plutarch, and others, have considered a monarchical go- vernment as the most advantageous and the most perfect of all those which mankind have invented. It is singular enough that the greater part of the above writers flourish- ed in ippublics. T II A L I A. Hoo " vernment, are unquestionably wise and just ; " but from bis opinion of an oligarcby, I totally " dissent*. Supposing tlie three different forms " of government, nionarcb)% democracy, and an " oligarchy, severally to prevail in the greatest " perfection, I am of opinion that monarchy has " greatly the advantage. Indeed nothing can " be better than the government of an individual " eminent for his virtue. He will not only have " regard to the general welfare of his subjects, " but his resolutions will be cautiously concealed " from the public enemies of the state. In an " oligarchy, the majority who have the care of * I must regret that the Umits I have found it necessary to propose to myself, will not allow me to transcribe the whole of M. Larcher's noble and excellent sentiments on the subject of these speeches of the Persian noblemen. He contrasts the situation of the Athenians whilst under their kings, and when in their democratic state. Under their lyings, says he, the people were happy, but they were never so under a democratic government Whether he had in his eye the government un- der which he lives, when he thus expressed himself, I leave to the reader's sagacity to determine. The governing power, conducting itself alone by caprice and passio n, destroyed on one day the proceedings of the former ; controlled by demagogues, it thought to control them, but in reality was enslaved. In a word, it neither knew how to com- mand, nor to obey. It often changed the forms of govern- ment, without adhering to any, like those diseased persons who every moment change their posture without being satisfied with any but that in which they are not. What he says a little fur- ther on is no less pertinent and spirited, and our only surprize is, that it was endured. *>56 THALIA. " the state, though employed in the exercise of " virtue for the public good, will be the objects " of mutual envy and dislike. Every individual " will be anxious to extend his own personal " importance, from which will proceed, faction, " sedition, and bloodshed. The sovereign power " coming by these means to the hands of a " single person, constitutes the strongest argu- " ment to prove what form of government is " best. Whenever the people possess the su- " preme authority, disorders in the state are " unavoidable : such disorders introduced in a *' republic, do not separate the bad and the pro- '' fligate from each other, they unite them in the " closest bonds of connection. They who mu- " tually injure the state, mutually support each " other; this evil exists till some individual, as- " suming authority, suppresses the sedition ; he *' of course obtains popular admiration, which "ends in his becoming the sovereign '^^ ; and " this again tends to prove, that a monarchy is " of all governments the most excellent. To " comprehend all that can be said at once, to " what are we indebted for our liberty ? did we 9'' Ends in his becoming the sovereign.] — It is probable that the ascendant of one man over multitudes began during a state of war, where the superiority of courage and of genius discovers itself most visibly, where unanimity and concert are most requisite, and where the pernicious eft'ects of disorder are most sensibly felt. — llunic. THALIA. 257 " derive it from the people, an oligarchy, or an " individual? For my own part, as we were " certainly indebted to one man for freedom, I " think that to one alone the government should '•' be intrusted. Neither can we without danger " change the customs of our country." LXXXIII. Such were the three different opi- nions delivered, the latter of which was approved by four out of the seven '^*. When Otanes saw his desire to establish an equality in Persia, re- jected, he spoke thus : " As it seems determined " that Persia shall be governed by one person, 9* Four out of the seven.] — This majority certainly decided in favour of that species of government which is most simple and natural ; and which would be, if always vested in proper hands, the best : but the abuse of absolute power is so pro- bable, and so destructive, that it is necessary by all means to guard against it. Aristotle inclines to the opinion of those, who esteem a mixed government the best that can be devised. Of this they considered the Lacedaemonian con- stitution a good specimen ; the kings connecting it with mo- narchy, the senate with oligarchy, and the ephori and syssytia with democracy. — Aristot. Pol. 1. ii, cap. 4. Modern spe- culators on this subject, with one accord, allow the consti- tution of Great Britain, as it stands at present, to be a much more judicious and perfect mixture of the three powers, which are so contrived as to check and counterbalance each other, without impeding that action of the whole machine, which is necessary to the well-being of the people. The sixth book of Polybius opens with a dissertation on the dif- ferent forms of government ; which deserves attention. — T. Vol. II. S i>58 T H A L 1 A. " whether chosen among ourselves hy lot, or by " the suffrages of the people, or by some other " method, you shall have no opposition from me : " I am equally averse to govern or obey. I " therefore yield, on condition that no one of " you shall ever reign over me, or any of my " posterity." The rest of the conspirators as- senting to this, he made no farther opposition, but retired from the assembly. At the present period this is the only family in Persia which retains its liberty, for all that is required of them is not to transgress the laws of their country. LXXXIV. The remaining six noblemen con- tinued to consult about the most equitable mode of electing a king ; and they severally deter- mined, that if the choice should fall upon any of themselves, Otanes himself and all his posterity sliould be annually presented witli a INIedian habit^\ as well as with every other distinction 95 Presented with a Median /lahit.] — The custom of giving vests or robes in Oriental countries, as a mark of honour and distinction, may be traced to the remotest antiquity, and still prevails. On this subject the following passage is given, from a manuscript of Sir John Chardin, by Mr. Har- mer, in. his Observations on Passages of Scripture. " The kings of Persia have great wardi-obes, where there are always many hundreds of habits ready, designed for pre- sents, and sorted. They pay great attention to the quality or merit of those to whom these vestments or habits are THALIA. g«9 magnificent in itself, and deemed honourable in Persia. They decreed him this tribute of re- spect, as he had first agitated the matter, and called them together. These were their deter- minations respecting Otanes ; as to themselves, they mutually agreed that access to the royal palace should be permitted to each of them, given : those that are given to the great men have as much difference as there is between the degrees of honour they pos- sess in the state." All modern travellers to the East speak of the same cus- tom. We find also in the Old Testament various examples of a similar kind. Chardin also, in his account of the coro- nation of Solyman the Third, king of Persia, has the follow- ing passage : " His Majesty, as every grandee had paid him his sub- missions, honoured him with a calate or royal vest. This Persian word, according to its etymology, signifies intire, perfect, accomplished, to signify either the excellency of the habit, or the dignity of him' that wears it ; for it is an infallible mark of the particular esteem which the sovereign has for the person to whom he sends it, and that he has free liberty to approach his person ; for when the kingdom has changed its lord and master, the grandees who have not re- ceived this vest dare not presume to appear before the king without hazard of their lives." This Median habit was made of silk ; it was indeed, among the elder Greeks, only another name for a silken robe, as we learn from Procopius, r^jyeadtira — ?)»/ iraXat fxtv'EXXtjvE^Mrj^i- Ktjv eKoXovv, vvv da1r}piKt]p ovo/xai^ovaiv. The remainder of this passage, literally translated, is, " and all that present which in Persia is most honourable." This gift is fully explained by Xenophon in the first book of the Anabasis ; it consisted of s 2 260 THALIA. without the ceremony of a previous messenger'^, except when the king should happen to be in bed with his wife. They also resolved, that the king should marry no woman but from tlie family of one of the conspirators. The mode they adopted to elect a king was this: — They agreed to meet on horseback at sun-rise* in the vicinity of the city, and to make him king, whose liorse should neigh the first. LXXXV. Darius had a groom, whose name was (Ebares, a man of considerable ingenuity, for whom, on his return home, he immediately sent. " CEbares," said he, " it is determined " that we are to meet at sun-rise on horse- " back, and that he among us shall be king, " whose horse shall first neigh. Whatever acute- " ness you have, exert it on this occasion, that a horse with a gilt bridle, a golden collar, bracelets, and a sword of the kind pecuhar to Media, called acinaces, besides the silken vest. His expressions are so similar to those of Herodotus, as to satisfy us that these specific articles properly made up the gift of honour. — T. 96 Previous ynessenger.^ — Visits to the Great in Eastern countries are always preceded by messengers, who carry pre- sents, differing in value according to the dignity of the person who is to receive them. Without some present or other no visit must be made, nor favour expected. — T. * Their appointing this period to determine who was to be prince, arose probably from the custom always observed by the Persians of paying adoration to the rising sun. ti THALIA. 261 no one but myself may obtain this bonoiir." Sir," replied CEbares, " if your being a king or not depends on what you say, be not afraid; " I have a kind of charm, which will prevent " any one's being preferred to yourself" — " Whatever," replied Darius, " this charm may " be, it must be applied without delay, as the " morning will decide the matter." (Ebares, therefore, as soon as evening came, conducted to the place before the city a mare, to which he knew the horse of Darius was particularly in- clined: he afterwards brought the horse there, and after carrying him several times round and near the mare, he finally permitted him to cover her. LXXXVI. The next morning as soon as it was light the six Persians assembled, as had been agreed, on horseback. After riding up and down at the place appointed, they came at length to the spot where, the preceding evening, the mare had been brought ; here the horse of Darius in- stantly began to neigh, which, though the sky was remarkably clear, was instantly succeeded by thunder and lightning. The heavens thus seemed to favour, and indeed to act in concert with Darius. Immediately the other noblemen dismounted, and falling at his feet, hailed him king ^. ''^ Hailed him king.'] — Darius was about twenty years old 262 T H A L I A. LXXXVII. Such, according to some, was the stratagem of CEbares ; others, however, relate the matter differently ; and both accounts prevail in Persia. These last affirm, that the groom, hav- ing rubbed his hand against the private parts of the mare, afterwards folded it up in his vest, and that in the morning, as the horses were about to depart, he drew it out from his garment, and touched the nostrils of the horse of Darius, and that this scent instantly made him snort and neiffh. LXXXVIII. Darius the son of Hystaspes 98 w hen Cyrus died. Cambyses reigned seven years and five months; Smerdis Magus was only seven months on the throne; thus Darius was about twenty-nine years old when he came to the crown. — Larcher. This circumstance of thunder and lightning from a cloud- less sky, is often mentioned by the ancients, and was con- sidered by them as the highest omen. Horace has left an ode upon it, as a circumstance which staggered his Epicu- rean notions, and impressed him with awe and veneration, 1. i. Od. 34; and the commentators give us instances enough of similar accounts. With us there is no thunder without clouds, except such as is too distant to have much eflect; it may be otherwise in hot climates, where the state of the air is much more electrical. — T. 98 Darius the son of Hystaspes l\ — Archbishop Usher holdeth that it was Darius Hystaspes that was the king Ahasuerus, who married Esther; and that Atossa was the Vashti, and Antystone the Esther of the Holy Scriptures. But Herodotus positively tells us, that Antystone was the daughter of Cyrus, and therefore she could not be Esther: and that v\tossa had T II A L I A. 263 was thus proclaimed king; and, except the Ara- bians, all the nations of Asia who had been sub- dued first by Cyrus, and afterwards by Cam- byses, acknowledged his authority. The Ara- bians* were never reduced to the subjection of Persia ^\ but were in its alliance: they afforded four sons by Darius, besides daughters, all born to him after he was king ; and therefore she could not be that queen Vashti, ^Yho was divorced from the king her husband in the third year of his reign, nor he that Ahasuerus that divorced her. — PiideaiLV. * Perhaps it may be said of the Arabians with greater truth than of any other nation, that they have never been enslaved. On this subject Larcher refers to Genesis, c. xvi. v. 12, where God says of Ismael, the parent of the Arabians : " And he will be a wild man, his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him, and he shall dw^ell in the presence of all his brethren." 99 Never reduced to the subjection of Persia.'\ — The inde- pendence of the Arabs has always been a theme of praise and admiration, from the remotest ages to the present. Upon this subject the following animated apostrophe from Mr. Gibbon, includes all that need be said. " The arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia. The present sovereign of the Turks may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the friendship of a people whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack. The ob- vious causes of their freedom are inscribed on the character and country of the Arabs ; the patient and active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a pastoral life. The long memory of their independence is the firmest pledge of its perpetuity ; and succeeding genera- tions are animated to prove their descent, and to maintain, 264 T H A L I A. Cambyses the means of penetrating into lEgypt, "without whicli he could never have accomplished his purpose. Darius first of all married two wo- men of Persia, both of them daughters of Cyrus, Atossa who had first been married to Cambyses, and afterwards to the magus, and Antystone a virgin. He then married Parmys, daughter of Smerdis, son of Cyrus *, and also that daughter of Otanes who had been the instrument in dis- covering the magus. Being firmly established on the throne, his first work was the erection of an equestrian statue, with this inscription : " Darius, " son of Hystaspes, obtained the sovereignty of " Persia by the sagacity of his horse, and the " ingenuity of Q^!.bares his groom." The name of the horse was also inserted. LXXXIX. The next act of his authority was to divide Persia into twenty provinces f, which their inheritance. When they advance to battle, the hope of victory is in the front, and in the rear the assurance of a retreat. Their horses and camels, who in eight or ten days can perform a march of four or five hundred miles, disappear before the conqueror : the secret waters of the desert elude his search ; and his victorious troops are consumed with hunger, thirst, and fatigue, in the pursuit of an invisible foe, who scorns his efl'orts, and safely reposes in the heart of the burning solitude." * Namely Phcedyma. See c. 68. t 'llie account given of the Persian monarchy by llera- dolus is curious, and seems to have been copied from some T H A L I A. 265 tliey call satrapies, to each of wliicli a governor was appointed. He then ascertained the tribute they were severally to pay, connecting sometimes many nations together, v/hich were near each other, under one district ; and sometimes he passed over many which were adjacent, forming one department * of various remote and scat- tered nations. His particular division of the provinces, and the mode fixed for the payment of their annual tribute, was this : They whose payment was to be made in silver, were to take the Babylonian talent'''' for their standard ; the public record, which had been communicated to him. Ac- cording to it, the Persian empire was divided into twenty satrapies, or governments. The tribute levied from each is specified, amounting in all to 14,560 Euboean talents, which Dr. Arbuthnot reckons to be equal to ^£2, 807,437 sterling money ; a sum extremely small for the revenue of the great king, and which ill accords with many facts concerning the mines, magnificence, and luxury of the East, that occur in ancient authors. — Robertson on India. * Much as I dislike the word department, it seems the only one here which will express the meaning of the author. It certainly may be doubted whether Darius connected these scattered nations in one government. Darius the Mede, usually understood to be Cyaxares the Second, divided his empire, which consisted of the territories of Babylon and Media, into 120 provinces ; these were subject to three presi- dents, of whom Daniel was the first. See Daniel, c. vi. v. 1. Major Rennell, 231. 100 Bahylonian talent.'] — What follows on t]:e subject of the talent, is extracted principally from Arbulhnot's Tables of an- cient coins. The 2GG T II A L I A. Euboic talent was to regulate those who made their payment in gold ; the Babylonian talent, it is to be observed, is equal to seventy Euboic minae. During the reign of Cyrus, and indeed of Cambyses, there were no specific tributes '"\ but presents were made to the sovereign. On account of these and similar innovations, the Persians call Darius a merchant, Cambyses a despot, but Cyrus a parent. Darius seemed to The word talent in Homer, is used to signify a balance, and in general it was applied either to a weight or a sum of money, diftering in value according to the ages and countries in which it was used. Every talent consists of 60 mina?, and every mina of 100 drachmae ; but the talents differed in weight according to the mina; and drachmce of which they were composed. What Herodotus here affirms of the Babylonian talent, is confirmed by Pollux and by iElian. The Euboic talent was so called from the island Euboea ; it was generally thought to be the same with the Attic talent, because both these countries used the same weights : the mina Euboica, and the mina Attica, each consisted of 100 drachmse. According to the above, the Babylonian talent would amount, in English money, to about £0.0.6 ; the Euboic or Attic talent, to ^1.93. 15*. — T. ^°i No specific fribtites.l — This seemingly contradicts what was said above, that the magus exempted the Persians for three years from every kind of impost. It must be ob- served that these imj)0sts were not for a constancy, they only subsisted in time of war, and were rather a gratuity than an impost. Those imposed by Darius were perpetual ; thus Herodotus does not in fact contradict himself. — Ijarcher. T H A L I A. 267 have no other object in view but the acquisition of gain ; Cambyses was negligent and severe ; whilst Cyrus was of a mild and gentle temper, ever stu- dious of the good of his subjects. XC. The lonians and Magnesians of Asia, the iEolians, Carians, Lycians, ^lelyeans ^°", and Pamphylians, were comprehended under one dis- trict, and jointly paid a tribute of four hundred talents of silver; they formed the first satrapy. The second, which paid five hundred talents, was composed of the JMysians, Lydians, Alysonians, Cabalians, and Hygennians ^'^^ A tribute of three hundred and sixty talents was paid by those who inhabit the right side of the Hellespont, by the Phrygians and Thracians of Asia, by the Paphlagonians, Mariandynians ^'^, and Syrians ; i°2 Melyeans.'] — These people are in all probability the same with the Milyans of whom Herodotus speaks, book i, c. clxxiii. and book vii. c. clxxvii. They were sometimes called Minyans, from Minos, king of Crete. — T. 303 Hygennians.'] — For Hygennians Wesseling proposes to read Obigenians. — T. 104 Mariandynians.'] — These were on the coast of Bithynia, where was said to be the Acherusian cave, through which Hercules dragged up Cerberus to light, whose foam then produced aconite. Thus Dionysius Periegeles, 1. 788. That sacred plain Avhere erst, as fablers tell, The deep-Yoic'd dog of Pluto, struggling hard Against the potent grasp of Hercules, With foamy drops impregnating the earth, Produc'd dire poison to destroy mankind. 268 T II A L 1 A. and these nations constituted the third satrapy *. The Cilicians were obliged to produce every day a white horse, that is to say, tliree liundred and sixty annually, with five hundred talents of sil- ver ; of these one hundred and forty were ap- pointed for the payment of the cavalry who formed the guard of the country ; the remaining * For a most perspicuous and most satisfactory elucidation of the geographical situation of these satrapies, I cannot do better than once for all refer the reader to Major Rennell's excellent work, from p. 234 to p. 323. The conclusion of this portion of Major Rennell's work breathes sentiments worthy a soldier and a Briton. I cannot deny myself the satisfaction of transcribing the last paragraph : " If the enemy is bent on our destruction, what have we to do, but to dispute the point, even to extermination ? What worse can befal us, by contesting it, than by submitting ? Take the examples of conquest, of sub/nission, and of fra- ternization, severally ; and then let any one, if he can, point out the distinction between the treatment that the French government has shewn to the different people who have fallen under its povver by those different modes ! We have therefore nothing to hope but from our own exertions, under the favour of Heaven : and let us trust, that the contest will terminate gloriously, and perpetuate the system of liberty transmitted to us by our ancestors, and thus hold out another bright example to succeeding times. The hatred of Europe is rising against France (or rather against its government ; for we hope that this distinction may be made in favour of a great proportion of the people, who may not be made accomplices in its guilt); that hatred must increase, and become general ; and all Frenchmen who leave their own country on schemes of hostility, must in the end be hunted down as enemies to the peace and comfort of mankind. We will hope that the time is not far distant." THALIA. 269 three hundred and sixty were received hy Da- rius : these formed the fourth satrapy. XCI. The tribute levied from the fifth satrapy was three hundred and fifty talents. Under this district, was comprehended the tract of country which extended from the city Posideium, built on the frontiers of Cilicia and Syria*, by Am- philochus, son of Amphiaraus'''^ as far as iEgypt, part of Arabia alone excluded, which paid no tribute. The same satrapy, moreover, included all Phoenicia, the Syrian Palestine, and the isle of Cyprus. Seven hundred talents were exacted ♦ It should be remembered that Syria is always regarded by Herodotus as synonymous with Assyria. What the Greeks called Palestine the Arabs call Falastin, which is the Philistines of Scripture. loi) AmphilucJius, son of Aivphiaraus.'] — For an account of Amphiaraus, see bonk the first, chap. xlvi. The name of the mother of Amphilochus, acrording to Pausanias, was Eriphyle. He appears to have obtained an esteem and vene- ration equal to that which was paid to his father. He had an oracle at Mallus, in Cilicia, which place he built ; he had also an altar erected to his honour at Athens. His oracle <;ontinued in the time of Plutarch, and the mode of consulting it was this : — The person who wished an answer to some in- quiry passed a night in the temple, and was sure to have a vision, which was to be considered as the reply. There is an exa'mple in Dion Cassius, of a picture which was painted in the time of Commodus, descriptive of an answer communi- cated by this oracle. — T. 270 T H A L I A. from yEgypt, from the Africans which border upon JEgy-pt, from Cyrene and Barce, which are comprehended in the yEgyptian district. The produce of the fishery of tlie lake Moeris was not included in this, neither was the corn, to the amount of seven hundred talents more ; one hun- dred and twenty thousand measures of which, were applied to the maintenance of the Persians and their auxiliary troops garrisoned within the white castle of INIemphis : this was the sixth satrapy. The seventh was composed of the Sat- gagydaj, the Gandarii, the Dadicas and Aparytae, who together paid one hundred and seventy talents. The eighth satrapy furnished three hun- dred talents, and consisted of Susa* and the rest of the Cissians. XCII. Babylon and the other parts of Assy- ria constituted the ninth satrapy, and paid a thou- sand talents of silver, with five hundred young eunuchs. The tenth satrapy furnished four hun- dred and fifty talents, and consisted of Ecbatana, the rest of JNIedia, the Parycanii, and the Ortlio- * The modern Khusistan answers to this division. The Persian monarchs had more than one residence, and accord- ing to Major Rennell, Susa and Persepolis were their winter habitations. In the time of Herodotus, however, Susa was the capital. THALIA. 271 corybaiites. The Caspians, tlie Pausicse, the Pan- timathi, and the Daritae, contributed amongst them two hundred talents, and formed the ele- venth satrapy. The twelfth produced three hun- dred and sixty talents, and was composed of the whole country from the Bactrians to ^Eglos. XCIII. From the thirteenth satrapy four hun- dred talents were levied ; this comprehended Pactyica, the Armenians, with the contiguous nations, as far as the Euxine. The fourteenth satrapy consisted of the Sangatians, the Saran- gseans, the Thamanaeans, Utians, and Menci, with those who inhabit the islands of the Red Sea, where the king sends those whom he ba- nishes ^°^; these jointly contributed six hundred 106 Whom he banishes.] — Banishmeiat seems to have been adopted as a punishment at a very early period of the world ; and it may be supposed that, in the infancy of society, men, reluctant to sanguinary measures, would have recourse to the expulsion of mischievous or unworthy members, as the simpler and less odious remedy. When we consider the efleet which exile has had upon the minds of the greatest and wisest of mankind, and reflect on that attractive sweet- ness of the natal soil, which whilst we admire in poetic de- scription we still feel to be ratione valentior omni, it seems wonderful that banishment should not more frequently su- persede the necessity of sanguinary punishments. That Ovid, whose mind was enervated by licentious habits, should deplore, in strains the most melancholy, the absence of what alone could make life supportable, may not perhaps be 27^ T H A T. I A. talents. The Saca^ and Casii* formed tlic fif- teenth satrapy, and provided two hundred and fifty talents. Three hundred talents were levied from the Parthians, Chorasmians, Sogdians, and Arians, who were the sixteenth satrapy. XCIV. The Paricanii and ^Ethiopians of Asia paid four hundred talents, and formed the seven- teenth satrapy. The eighteenth was taxed at two hundred talents, and was composed of the Matieni, the Saspirians, and Alarodians. The Moschi, Tibareni, Macrones, Mosynoeci, and INIardians, provided three hundred talents, and were the nineteenth satrapy. The Indians, the most numerous nation of whom we have any knowledge, were proportionably taxed ; they thought wonderful; but that Cicero, whose whole life was a life of philosophic discipline, should so entirely lose his firmness, and forget his dignity, may justify our concluding of the punishment of exile, that human vengeance need not inflict a more severe calamity. In opposition to what I have asserted above, some reader will perhaps be inclined to cite the example of Lord Bolingbroke, his conduct, and his reflections upon exile; but I think I can discern through that laboured apology, a secret chagrin and uneasiness, which convinces me at least, that whilst he acted the phi- losopher and the stoic, he hud the common feelings and in- firmities of man. — T. * I have altered this word, which was Caspii in the for- mer edition, to Casii, on the authority of Major Rennell. The Caspii have already been concluded with the Durita;, in c. ^'2, and the Kashgurians actually join to the Saca:;. THALIA. 273 formed the twentieth satrapy, and furnished six hundred talents in golden ingots*. XCV. If the Babylonian money he reduced to the standard of the Euboic talent, the aggre- gate sum will be found to be nine thousand eight hundred and eighty talents in silver; and, esti- mating the gold at thirteen times '°' the value of silver, there will be found, according to the Eu- boic talent, four thousand six hundred and eighty of these talents. The whole being estimated together, it will appear that the annual tribute lOU * Gold was found in the rivers of India, in the region which was towards Persia; so says the Ayin Acbary. The number of six hundred must be a mistake ; it is out of all proportion, and would make this satrapy pay four times and a half as much as Babylonia and Assyria, which was one of the richest satrapies. See Rennell, as before. i>>T Thirteen times the value of sz/re/-.] — The proportion of gold to silver varied at different times, according to the abundance of these two metals. In the time of Darius it was thirteen to one ; in the time of Plato, twelve ; and in the time of Menander, the comic poet, it was ten. — Lurcher. In the time of Julius Cssar the proportion of gold to silver at Rome was no more than nine to one. This arose from the prodigious quantity of gold which Cssar had obtained from the plunder of cities and temples. It is generally sup- posed amongst the learned, that in the gold coin of the ancients one-hftieth part was alloy. — T. 108 The annual tribute.} — The comparison of two passages in Herodotus (book i. chap, cxcii. and book iii. chaps. Ixxxix. xcvi.) reveals an important difference between the gi-oss and A^OL. II. T 274 'J' II ALIA. paid to Darius was fourteen thousand five hun- dred and sixty talents, omitting many trifling sums not deserving our attention*. XCVI. Such was the sum which Asia prin- cipally, and Africa in some small proportion, paid to Darius. In process of time, the islands also were taxed, as was that part of Europe which extends to Thessaly. The manner in which the king deposited these riches in liis treasury, was this: — The gold and silver were melted and poured into earthen vessels ; the vessel, when full, was removed, leaving the metal in a mass. When any was wanted, such a piece was broken off, as the contingence required. XCVI I. We have thus described the different the net revenue of Persia, the sums paid by the provinces, and the gold or silver deposited in the royal treasury. The monarch might annually save three millions six hundred thousand pounds of the seventeen or eighteen millions raised upon the people. — Gibbon. * Taking the value of the Euboic talent at c£l93. 15*. according to Arbuthnot's valuation, the sum arising on the above number of talents is about o£'2, 821,000. If to this be added, according to the above statement, 700 talents for the value of the Egyptian grain, and 1,000 more for the con- tribution of the Arabians, and if we are allowed to value the gratuities from the Persians, the /F.thiopians, and the Col- chians, at 2,000 more, that is 3,700 taltnts in addition, the aggregate will be about J. 3,650,000, or somewhat more than three millions and a half of our monev. — Rfjivrll. T H A L I A. 275 satrapies, and the impost on each. Persia is the only province wliich I have not mentioned as trihutary. The Persians are not compelled to pay any specific taxes, but they present a regular gratuity. The .Ethiopians v/ho border upon jEgypt, subdued by Cambyses in his expedition against the ^Ethiopian Macrobians, are similarly circumstanced, as are also the inhabitants of the sacred town of Nyssa, who have festivals in ho- nour of Bacchus. These ^l^^thiopians, with their neighbours, resemble in their customs the Calaii- tian Indians : they have the same rites of sepul- ture ^"', and their dv*Tllings are subterraneous. Once in every three years these two nations pre- sent to the king two choenices of gold unrefined, two hundred blocks of ebony, twenty large ele phants teeth, and five ^Ethiopian youths; which custom has been continued to my time. The people of Colchos'^° and their neighbours, as far 109 The same rites of sepulture.'] — The word in the text is, (TTrspfxari, which means grains : to say of two different na- tions that they use the same grain, seems ridiculous enough. Valcnaer proposes to read (Tinnari. I have followed Valcnaer, though 1 think the transition somewhat violent. To say that ihey used the same kind of grain, namely Spelt, would make very good sense. i^*^ T/ie people of Colchos.']— It was the hoast of the Col- chians, that their ancestors had checked the victories of Sesostris ; but they sunk without any memorable effort under the arms of Cyrus, followed in distant wars the standard of ihe great king, and presented him every fifth year with a hundred boys and as many virgins, the fairest produce of ■r o 276 THALIA. as mount Caucasus, imposed upon themselves tlie payment of a gratuity. To this latter place the Persian authority extends ; northward of this, their name inspires no respect. Every five years the nations above mentioned present the king with an hundred youths and an hundred virgins"^ which also has been continued within my remem- brance. The Arabians contribute every year frankincense to the amount of a thousand ta- lents.— Independent of the tributes before spe- cified, these were the presents which the king received. XCVIII. The Indians* procure the great num- ber of golden ingots, which, as I have observed. the land. Yet he accepted this gift like the gold and ebony of India, the frankincense of the Arabs, and the negroes and ivory of ^Ethiopia : The Colchians were not subject to the dominion of a satrap, and they continued to enjoy the name as well as substance of national independence. — Gibbon. ^'^ Hundred virgins^ — The native race of Persians is small and ugly, but it has been improved by the perpetual mixture of Circassian blood. This remark Mr. Gibbon applies to the Persian women in the time of Julian. Amongst modern travellers, the beauty of the Persian ladies is a constant theme of praise and admiration. — T. * Herodotus's very confined knowledge of India is proved by the extraordinary reports which he has detailed concern- ing its inhabitants, some of which arc highly injurious to the character of that industrious, inotl'ensive, and highly civilized T H A L I A. 277 tlicy present as a donative to the king, in this manner : — That part of India which lies towards the east is very sandy ; and indeed, of all nations concerning whom we have any authentic ac- counts, the Indians are the people of Asia who are nearest to the east, and the place of the ri- sing sun. The part most eastward, is a perfect desert, from the sand. Under the name of In- dians many nations are comprehended using different languages ; of these, some attend prin- cipally to the care of cattle, others not; some inhabit the marshes, and live on raw fish, which they catch in boats made of reeds, divided at the joint, and every joint "' makes one canoe. These Indians have cloth made of rushes ^^', which people. For, with many particulars that are true respecting their custonris and manners, he has mixed a greater number that are false, and of such a nature as to brand their cha- racters with a charge of odious and obscene practices, from which they are perfectly free at this time, and were so, no doubt, then. — Reiuicll. 112 Ex ery joint ^ — This assertion seems wonderful; but Pliny, book xvi. chap. 36, treating of reeds, canes, and aquatic shrubs, affirms the same, with this precaution in- deed, " if it may be credited." His expression is this: — Harundini quidem Indicaj arborea amplitude, quales vulgo in templis videmus. — Spissius mari corpus, fceminae capacius. Navigiorumque etiam vicem prsestant (si credimus) singula interuodia. The Si credimus is not improbably a sneer at Herodotus.— T. 1^^ Cloth made of rushes.'] — To trace the modern dress back to the simplicity of the first skins, and leaves, and 278 T li A L I A. having mowed and cut, they weave together like a mat, and wear in the manner of a cuirass. XCIX, To the east of these are other Indians, called Fadaei ^'\ who lead a pastoral life, live on raw ficsh "^ and are said to observe these cus- feathers, that were worn by mankind in the primitive ages, if it were possible, would be almost endless; the fashion has been gften changed, while the materials remained the same : the materials have been different as they were gradually pro- duced by successive arts, that converted a raw bide into leather, the wool of the sheep into cloth, the web of the worm into silk, and flax and cotton into linen of various kinds. One garment also has been added to another, and ornaments have been multiplied on ornaments, with a variety almost infinite, produced by the caprice of human vanity, or the new necessities to which man rendered himself subject by those many inventions which look place after he ceased to be, as God had created him, upright. — See histo- rical remarks on dress, prefixed to a collection of the dresses of difierent nations, ancient and modern. 'i he canoes and dresses here described, will strike the reader as much resembling those seen and .described ty modern voyagers to the South Seas. — T. Impia nee sa:vis cclebrans convivia mensis Ultima vicinus Pha-bo tenet arva Padieus. Tibtili. 1. iv. 144. Herodotus does not appear to have heard of the Ganges, but these Padai probably inhabited the bunks of that river. The Sanscrit and proper name of the Ganges is Padda. Major Rennell is of opinion that these Pada.'i may answer to |.he Gangaridai of the latter Greek writers. ^'^ On raw Jftf^/i.]~-\oi at all more incredible is the cus- THALIA. 279 toms : — If any man among them be diseased, his nearest connections put him to death, alleging in excuse that sickness would waste and injure his flesh. They pay no regard to his assertions that he is not really ill, but without the smallest compunction deprive him of life. If a woman be ill, her female connections treat her in the same manner. The more aged among them are regu- larly killed and eaten ; but there are very few who arrive at old age, for in case of sickness they put every one to death. C. There are other Indians, who, differing in manners from the above, put no animal to death '^^, sow no grain, have no fixed habitations, torn, said to be prevalent among the Abyssinians, of eating a slice of meat raw from the living ox, and esteeming it one of the greatest delicacies. The assertion of this fact by Mr. Bruce, the celebrated traveller, excited a clamour against him, and by calling his veracity in question, probably operated, amongst other causes, to the delay of his pub- lication. This very fact, however, is also asserted of the Abyfcsinians by Lobo and Poncet. If it be allowed without reserve, an argument is deducible from it, to prove that bullock's blood, in contradiction to what is asserted by our historian, in chap. 15 of this book, is not a poison; unless we suppose that the quantity thus taken into the stomach would be too small to produce the effect. Lobo, as well as Bruce, affirms, that the Abyssinians eat beef, not only in a raw state, but reeking from the ox. — T. 116 Put no animal to deatk.l — Nicholas Damascenus has pre- served the name of this peoph. He calls them Aritonians. On 280 T H A L I A. and live solely upon vegetables. They have a particular grain, nearly of the size of millet, which the soil spontaneously produces, which is protected by a calyx ; the whole of this they bake and eat. If any of these Indians be taken sick, they retire to some solitude, and there remain, no one expressing tlie least concern about them dur- ing their illness, or after their death. CI. Among all these Indians whom I have specified, the communication between tlie sexes* is like that of the beasts, open and unrestrained. They are all of the same com])lexion, and much resembling the /Ethiopians. The semen which their males emit is not, like that of other men, white, but black hke their bodies"'; which is also the case with the ilithiopians. These lu- On this name INIr. 'Wilkins observes that it may be a corrupt reading of Barrata, or Bharata, whicli is the Sanscrit name of India. I cannot help thinking Mr. Wilkins a little fanciful on this subject. — Larchcr. See in Melpomene an account of the Issedenes, and in Clio what Herodotus says of the Massage ta\ * See Clio, c. 2l6 "7 Black like titrir bodies.'] — Semen si probe conroctum fuerit, colore album et splendens esse oportet, ut vel hinc pateat quam parum vere Herodotus scribal semen nigrum /Ethiopes promere. Rodcnctts a Castro dc unkcrm mulkrmn malidna. — Aristotle had before said the same thing, in his History of Animals. — Lanlur. T H A L I A. 281 diaus are very remote from Persia towards the south*, and were never in subjection to Darius. CII. There are still other Indians towards the north, who dwell near the city of Caspatyrum, and the country of Pactyica. Of all the Indians these in their manners most resemble the Bac- trians; they are distinguished above the rest by their bravery, and are those who are employed in searching for the gold f . In the vicinity of this district there are vast deserts of sand, in which a species of ants^^*^ is produced, not so * Thus it appears that Herodotus had a very good idea of the form and extent of the Erythrean sea, but he certainly did not know that India extended so far southward as it actually does. t See Vincent's Nearchus, p. 70, and Rennell, p. 410. ^'^ Species of a/its.'] — Of these ants PUny also makes men- tion, in the following terms : " In the temple of Hercules, at Erythra?, the horns of an Indian ant were to be seen, an astonishing object. In the country of the northern Indians, named Danda?, these ants cast up gold from holes within the earth. In colour they resemble cats, and are as large as the wolves of iEgypt This gold, which they throw up in the winter, the Indians contrive to steal in the summer, when the ants, on account of the heat, hide themselves under ground. But if they hap- pen to smell them, the ants rush from their holes, and will often tear them in pieces, though mounted on their swiftest camels ; such is the swiftness and fierceness they display from the love of their gold." Upon the above, Larcher has this remark . — The little com- 282 THALIA. large as a dog, but bigger than a fox. Some of these, taken by hunting, are preserved in the palace of the Persian monarch. Like the ants common in Greece, which in form also they nearly resemble,^ they make themselves habita- tions in the ground, by digging under the sand. The sand thus thrown up is mixed with gold- dust, to collect which, the Indians are dispatched into the deserts. To this expedition they pro- ceed, each with three camels fastened together, a female being secured between two males, and upon her the Indian is mounted, taking parti- cular care to have one which has recently foaled. The females of this description are in all respects munication which the Greeks had with the Indians, pre- vented their investigating the truth with respect to this animal ; and their Icve of the marvellous inclined them to assent to this description of Herodotus. Demetrius Triclinius says, on the Antigone of Sophocles, doubtless from some ancient Scholiast which he copies, that there are in India winged ani- mals, named ants, which dig up gold. Herodotus and Pliny say nothing of iheir having wings. Most of our readers will bo. induced to consider the description of these ants as fiibulous ; nevertheless, De Thou, an author of great credit, tells us, that Shah Thomas, sophi of Persia, sent, in the year 1559, to So'i- man an ant like these here described. They who had seen the vast nests of the termites, or white ants, miglit easily be persuaded that the animals which formed them were as large as foxes. The disproportion be- tween the insect, though large, and its habitation, is very extraordinary. — T. 1 he reader will find an elaborate account of the termites in thf^ Philosophical Transactions for 1781. THALIA. 283* as swift as horses, and capable of bearing mucli greater burdens "^. "9 Greater burdens.] — Of all the liescriptions 1 have met with of this wondfifiil animal, the following, from Volney, seems the most animated and interebting : — No creature seems so peculiarly fitted to the climate in which it exists, as the camel. Designing the camel to dwell in a country where he can find little nourishmt nt, Nature has heen sparing of her materials in the whole of his formaiion. She hjis not hestowed upon him the fleshiness of ihe ox, horse, or elephant, but limiting herself to what is strictly necessary, she has given him a small head without ears, at the end of a long neck without fiesh. She has taken from his legs and thighs every muscle not immediately requisite for motion, and in short has bestowed on his withered body only the vessels and tendons necessary to connect its frame together. She has furnished him with a strong jaw, that he may grind the hardest aliments; but, lest he should consume too much, she has straitened his stomach, and obliged him to chew the cud. She has lined his foot with a lump of flesh, which, sliding in the mud, and being no way adapted to climbing, fits him only for a dry, level, and sandy soil, like that of Arabia: she has evidently destined him likewise for slavery, by refusing him every sort of defence against his enemies. So great, in short, is the importance of the camel to the desert, that were it deprived of that useful animal, it must infallibly lose every inhabitant. — Volney. With respect to the burdens which camels are capable of carrying, Russel tells us, that the Arab camel will carry one hundred rotoloes, or five hundred pounds weight; but the Turcomans camels common load is one hundred and sixty rotoloes, or eight hundred pounds weight. Their ordinary pace is very slow, Volney says, not more than thirty-six hundred yards in an hour ; it is needless to press them, they will go no quicker. Raynal says, that the Arabs qualify the ramels for expedition by matches, in which the hrrse runs 284 T II A L I A. cm. As my countrymen of Greece are well acquainted with the form of the camel, I shall not here describe it ; I shall only mention those particulars concerning it with which I conceive them to be less acquainted ^''\ Behind, the camel has four thigh and as many knee joints ; the mem- ber of generation fjills from between the hinder legs, and is turned towards the tail. CIV. Having thus connected their camels, the Indians proceed in search of the gold, choosing against him ; the camel, less active and nimble, tires out his rival in a long course. There is one peculiarity with respect to camels, which not being generally known, I give the reader, as translated from the Latin of Father Strope, a learned Ger- man missionary. " The camels which have had the honour to bear presents to jNIecca and Medina are not to be treated afterwards as common animals ; they are considered as conse- crated to Mahomet, which exempts them from all labour and service. They have cottages built for their abodes, where they live at ease, and receive plenty of food, with the most careful attention." — T. ^20 To be less acquainted.'] — These farther particulars con- cerning the camel, are taken from Mr. Pennant. The one-bunched camel, is the Arabian camel, the two- bunched, the Bactrian. The Arabian has six callosities on the legs, will kneel down to be loaded, but rises the moment he finds the burden equal to his strength. They are gentle always, except when in heat, when they are seized with a sort of madness, which makes it unsafe to approach them. The Bactrian camel is larger and more generous than the domesticated race. The Chinese have a swift variety of this, which tbpy call by the expressive name of long Kyo Fo, or camels with feet of the wind. THALIA. 285 the hottest time of the day as most proper for their purpose, for then it is that the aiits conceal themselves under the earth. In distinction from all other nations, the heat with these people is greatest, not at mid-day, but in the morning. They have a vertical sun till about the time when, with us, people withdraw from the forum ^"^ ; ^^^ People ■u;ithdrawfro7n the forum.'] — The periods of the forum were so exactly ascertained, as to serve for a notation of time. The time of full forum is mentioned by many authors, as Thucydides, Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, Lucian, and others, and is said by Suidas to have been the third hour in the morning, that is, nine o'clock ; and Dio Chrysostom places it at an intermediate point between morning or sun- rise, and noon, which agrees also with nine o'clock. One passage in Suidas speaks also of the fourth, fifth, and sixth hours; but either they were fora of different kinds, or the author is there mistaken, or the passage is corrupt. See iElian, xii. 30. and Athenasus, xiv. 1. The time of breaking up the forum, ayo,o>/c ciaXvaiQ, is not, I believe, mentioned, except here, by Herodotus ; but by this passage it appears that it must have been also a stated time, and before noon; probably ten or eleven o'clock. This account of a sun hotter and more vertical in the morning than at noon, is so perfectly unphilosophical, that it proves decisively, what the hypothesis of our author concerning the overflowing of the Nile gave strong reason to suspect, that Herodotus was entirely uninformed on subjects of this kind. INIid-day, or noon, can be only, at all places, when the sun is highest and consequently hottest, unless any clouds or periodical winds had been assigned as causes of this singular effect. Whoever fabricated the account, - which he here repeats, thought it necessary to give an appearance of novelty even to the celestial phenomena of the place. Herodotus !286 T MALI A. during which period the warmth is more excessive than the mid-day sun in Greece, so that tlie in- habitants are then said to go into the water for refresliment. Their mid-day is nearly of the same temperature as in other places ; after which the warmth of the air becomes like tlic morning else- where ; it then progressively grows milder, till at the setting sun it becomes very cool. CV. As soon as they arrive at the spot, the Indians precipitately fill their bags with sand, and return as expeditiously as possible. The Persians say that these ants know and pursue the Indians by their smell, with inconceivable swiftness. They affirm, that if the Indians did not make consider- able progress whilst the ants were collecting them- selves together, it would be impossible for any of them to escape. For this reason, at different Herodotus himself uses the term of irXTjOupa ayoprj^ in book ii. ch. 173, and vii. '2Q3.—T. Whatever credit Herodotus may be in various respects entitled to, this and other passages demonstrate him to have been grossly ignorant of natural philosophy. He did not believe the earth to be globular. See INIclpomene, c. 36". lie did nut crfdit the existence of snow in elevated situa- tions in warmer climates ; and most unphilosophically in- deed does he explain the plieuomena of the inundation of the Nile, Euterpe, c. 24. See attain, IMelpumene, v. 4'J, his account of the voyage of Nechao. See on the subject Rennell, p. S. T H A I. I A. S87 intervals ^'"^^ they separate one of the male camels from the female, which are always fleeter than the males, and are at this time additionally in- cited by the remembrance of their young whom they had left. Thus, according to the Persians, the Indians obtain their greatest quantity of gold ; what they procure by digging is of much inferior importance. CVI. Thus it appears that the extreme parts of the habitable world, are distinguished by the possession of many beautiful things, as Greece is for its agreeable and temperate seasons. India, as I have already remarked, is the last inhabited country towards the east*, where every species of birds and of quadrupeds, horses excepted ^"\ are 122 Af different intenah.^ — This passage is somewhat per- plexing. The reader must remember that the Indian rode upon tlie female camel, which was betwixt two males. This being the swiftest, he trusted to it for his own personal security ; and it may be supposed that he untied one or both of the male camels, as the enemy approached, or as his fears got the belter of his avarice. — T. The knowledge which Herodotus had of India, was obtained from the Persians, which, says Dr. Robertson, renders it pio- bable that in tlie time of the Historian very little intercourse subsisted between Egypt and India. * SeeRennell, p. \66, 7, and 197. 1--^ Horses excepted-l — Every thing of moment which is involved in the natural history of the horse, may be found in M. Buffon : but, as Mr. Pennant observes, we mav in this 288 T II A I. I A. miicli larger tlian in any other part of tlie world. Their horses arc not so large as the Nisaean horses of Media. They have also a great abundance of gold, which they procure partly by digging, partly from the rivers, but principally by the method. country boast a variety which no other single kingdom pos- sesses. INIost other countries produce but one kind, while ours, by a judicious mixture of the several species, by the happy diflerence of our soil, and by our superior skill in management, may triumph over the rest of Europe in having brought each quality of this noble animal to the highest per- fection. The same author tells us, that the horse is in some places found wild : that these are less than the domestic kinds, of a mouse colour, have greater heads than the tame, their foreheads remarkably arched, go in great herds, will often surround the horses of the jMongals and Kalkas while they are grazing, and carry them away. These are excessively vigilant : a sentinel placed on an eminence gives notice to the herd of any approaching danger, by neighing aloud, when they all run off with amazing swiftness. These are sometimes taken by the moans of hawks, which fix on their heads, and distress them so as to give the pursuers time to overtake them. In the interior parts of Ceylon is a small variety of the horse, not exceeding thirty inches in height, which is sometimes brought to Europe as a rarity. It may not, in this place, be impertinent to inform the reader, that in the East the riding on a horse is deemed very honourable, and that Europeans are very seldom permitted to do it. In the book of Ecclesiastes, chap. x. ver. 7. vve meet with this expression, " I have seen servants on horses," which we may of course understand to be spoken of a thing very unusual and improper. To conclude this subject, I have only to observe, that the Arabian horses are justly allowed to be the finest in the world in point of beauty and of swil'tness, and are sent into all parts to improve the bread of this animal. — T THALIA. 289 above described. They possess likewise a kind of plant, which, instead of fruit, produces wool '~^ of a finer and better quality than that of sheep : of this the natives make their clothes. evil. The last inhabited country towards the soutl], is Arabia, the only region of the earth which produces frankincense^"^, myrrh, cinna- mon ^■", casia ^"\ and ledanum ''". Except the 124 Produces wool.] — This was doubtless the cotton shrub, called by the ancients byssus. This plant grows to the height of about four feet: it has a yellow flower, streaked with red, not unlike that of the mallow ; the pistil becomes a pod of the size of a small egg ; in this are from three to four cells, each of which, on bursting, is found to contain seeds involved in a whitish substance, which is the cotton. The time of gathering the cotton is when the fruit bursts, which hajjpens in the months of March and April. The scientific name of this plant is gossypium. — T. 125 Frankincense.'] — This, of all perfumes, was the most esteemed by the ancients; it was used in divine worship, and was in a manner appropriated to princes and great men. Those employed in preparing it were naked, they had only a girdle about their loins, which their master had the precaution to secure with his own seal. — T. '^^ Cimiamon'] — is a species of laurel, the bark of which constitutes its valuable part. This is taken off in the months of September and February. When cut into small slices, it is exposed to the sun, the heat of which curls it up in the form in which we receive and use it. The berry, when boiled in water, yields, according to Raynal, an oil, which, ^'' — ^'^ For tliese Notes, see next page. Vol. K. U 290 THALIA. myrrh, the Arabians obtain all these aromatics without any considerable trouble. To collect the frankincense, they burn under the tree which produces it a quantity of the sty rax ^''\ which the Phoenicians export into Greece ; for these trees are each of them guarded by a prodigious number of flying serpents, small of body, and of different colours, which are dispersed by the smoke of the gum. It is this species of serpent which, in an immense body, infests ^^^gypt. suffered to congeal, acquires a whiteness. Of this candles are made, of a very aromatic smell, which are reserved for the sole use of the king of Ceylon, in which place it is prin- cipally found. — T. It is now well understood that the substance called cin- namon by the ancients was extremely different from this of ours, which is peculiar to the islaud of Ceylon. The cin- namon of the ancients, as well as their other spices, ledanum excepted, came most probably through Arabia, from India. These tales of Herodotus were most likely invented by the Arabians, to conceal a fact of such importance to their interest. '■-'' Casiu.'] — This is, I believe, a bastard kind of cinnamon, called in Europe cassia lignea; the merchants mix it with true cinnamon, which is four times its value ; it is to be distin- guished by a kind of viscidity perceived in chewing it. — T. ^28 Ledanutn.l — Ledanum, or ladanum, according to Pliny, was a gum made of the dew which was gathered from a shrub called hidd.—T. 129 St I/rax.] — This is the gum of the storax tree, is very aromatic, and brought to this country in considerable quan- tities from the Archipelago. It is obtained by making inci- sions in the tree. The Turks adulterate it with saw-dust. Another species of storax is imported to Europe from Ame- rica, and is procured from the liquid-auiber-tree.— 7'. THALIA. 291 CVIII. Tke Arabians, moreover, affirm, that tlieir whole country would be filled with these serpents, if the same thing were not to happen with respect to them which we know happens, and, as it should seem, providentially, to the vipers. Those animals, which are more timid, and which serve for the purpose of food, to pre- vent their total consumption are always re- markably prolific ^' ', which is not the case with those which are fierce and venomous. The hare, for instance, the prey of every beast and bird, as well as of man, produces young abundantly. It is the singular property of this animal "\ that it conceives a second time, when it is already preg- nant, and at the same time carries in its womb young ones covered with down, others not yet ^^^ Remarkabli) pruli/ic.l — See Derham's chapter on the balance of animals, Phiisico-Theology, h. iv. chap. x. and ch. xiv. § 3. ^9^ The singular property of this animal.] — With respect to the superfoetation of this animal, Pliny makes the same remark, assigning the same reason. Lepus omnium prceds nascens, solus praeter Dasypodem superfoetat, aliud educans, aliud in utero pilis vestitum, aliud implume, aliud inchoatum gerens pariter. This doctrine of superfoetation is strenuously defended by Sir T. Brown, in his Vulgar Errors; and, as far as it respects the animal in question, is credited by Larcher : but Mr. Pennant very sensibly remarks, that as the hare breeds very frequently in the course of the year, there is no necessity for having recourse to this doctrine to account for their numbers. — T. V 2 292 THALIA. formed, others just beginning to be formed, wliilst the mother herself is again ready to coneeive. Eut the lioness, of all animals tlie strongest and most ferocious, produces but one young one ^^' in her life, for at the birth of her cub she loses her matrix. The reason of this seems to be, that as the claws of the lion are sharper by much than those of any other animal, the cub, as soon as it begins to stir in the womb, injures and tears the matrix, which it does still more and more as it grows bigger, so that at the time of its birth no part of the womb remains wdiole. CIX. Thus, therefore, if vipers and those winged serpents of Arabia were to generate in the ordinary course of nature, the natives could not live. But it happens, that when they are incited by lust to copulate, at the very instant of emission, the female seizes the male by the neck, and does not quit her hold till she has quite devoured it ^'l The male thus perishes, but the female is also punished ; for whilst the young are still within the womb, as the time of birth ap- proaches, to make themselves a passage they tear ^^^ But one young one.] — This assertion is perfectly absurd and false. The lioness has from two to six yoinig ones, and the same lioness has been known to litter four or five times. — T. 133 2uitc devoured if.] — This narrative must also be con- sidered as intirely fabulous. — T. THALIA. 293 in pieces the matrix, thus avenging their father's death. Those serpents which are not injurious to mankind lay eggs, and produce a great quantity of young. There are vipers in every part of the world, but winged serpents are found only in Arabia, where there are great numbers. ex. We have described how the Arabians procure their frankincense ; their mode of obtain- ing the cassia is this : — they cover the whole of their body, and the face, except the eyes, with skins of different kinds; they thus proceed to the place where it grows, which is in a marsh not very deep, but infested by a winged species of animal much resembling a bat, very strong, and making a hideous noise ; they protect their eyes from these, and then gather the cassia. CXI. Their manner of collecting the cinna- mon ^^* is still more extraordinary. In what 13* Cinnamon.'l — The substance of Larcher's very long and learned note on this subject, may, if I mistake not, be comprised in very few words : by cinnamomum the ancients understood a branch of that tree, bark and all, of which the cassia was the bark only. The cutting of these branches is now prohibited, because found destructive of the tree. I have before observed, tliat of cinnamon there are different kinds ; the cassia of Herodotus was, doubtletis, what we in general understand to be cinnamon, of which our cassia, or cassia lignea, is an inferior kjnd. — T. 294 T II xV L I A. particular spot it is produced, they themselves are unable to certify. There are some wlio assert that it grows in the region where Bacchus w'as educated, and their mode of reasoning is by no means improbable. These affirm that the vege- table substance, which we, as instructed by the Phoenicians ^% call cinnamon, is by certain large — ^ — ' ■ ' ■ '■- —..■■- — — — ■- . y I ■■ ■ . — — , I- .■■■ — 13^ As instructed hi/ the P/ia:nicians.'\ — I cannot resist the pleasure of giving at full length the note of Larcher on this passage, which detects and explains two of the most singular and unaccountable errors ever committed in literature. " The above is the true sense of the passage, which Pliny has mistaken. lie makes Herodotus say that the cinnamon and casia are found in the nests of certain birds, and in particular of the yhixnix. Cinnamomum et casias, fabulose narravit antiquitas, princepsve Herodotus, avium nidis et privatim phoenicis, in quo situ Liber Pater educatus esset, ex inviis rupihus arborihusque decuti. The above passage from Pliny, Dupin has translated, most ridiculously, ' I'antiquite fabuleuse, et le prince des menteurs, Herodote, disent,' &c. He should have said Herodotus first of all, for princeps, in this place, does not mean prince, and menteur cannot pos- sibly be implied from the text of Pliny. Pliny had reason to consider the circumstance as fabulous, but he ought not to have imputed it to our Historian, who says no such thing. But the authority of Pliny has imposed not only on Statius, Pharieeque exerapta volucri Cinnama, where Pharia volucris means the phoenix ; and on Avienus, Internis etiam procul undique ab oris Ales arnica deo largum congessit aniomum ; but also on Van Stapel, in his Commentaries on Theo- phrastus. Pliny had, doubtless, read too hastily this passage of Herodotus, which is sufiiciently clear. Suidas and the Etymologicum Magnum, are right in the word Kivaixoifior." T H A L I A. 295 birds carried to their iiesis constructed of clay, and placed in the cavities of inaccessible rocks. To procure it thence, the Arabians liave contrived this stratagem: — they cut in very large pieces the dead bodies of oxen, asses, or other beasts of burden, and carry them near these nests: they then retire to some distance ; the birds soon fly to the spot, and carry these pieces of flesh to their nests, which not being able to support the weight, fall in pieces to the ground. The Ara- bians take this opportunity of gathering the cin- namon*, which they afterwards dispose of to different countries. CXII. The ledanum"*^, or, as the natives term it, ladanum, is gathered in a more rcmark- * The same cause that allotted a place in Herodotus to the description of the ants that were said to dig up gold in India, and to that of the mode of collecting cinnamon in Arabia, namely, the difficulty of getting at the truth, gave occasion also to the description of the table of the sun in ^Ethiopia. — RennelL The mode here described of getting the cinnamon, re- sembles in many particulars one of the adventures of Sinbad the Sailor, in the Arabian Nights Entertainments. 136 Lcdunum.] — The following farther particulars concern- ing this aromatic are taken from Tournefort. It is gathered by the means of whips, which have long handles, and two rows of straps ; with these they brush the plants, and to these will stick the odoriferous glue which hangs on the leaves ; when the whips are sufliciently laden 296 T H A L I A. able manner than even the cinnamon. In itself it is particularly fragrant, though gathered from a place as much the contrary. It is found stick- ing to the beards of he-goats, like the mucus of trees. It is mixed by the Arabians in various aromatics, and indeed it is with this that they commonly perfume themselves. CXIII. I have thought it proper to be thus minute on the rsubjcct of the Arabian perfumes ; and we may add, that the whole of Arabia ex- hales a most delicious fragrance. There are also in this country two species of sheep, well deserv- ing admiration, and to be found no where else. One of them is remarkable for an enormous length of tail "', extending to three cubits, if not with this glue, they take a knife and scrape it clean otV tlie straps. In the time of Dioscorides, and before, they used to gather the ledanurn not only with whips, but they also were careful in combing off such of it as was found sticking to the beards and thighs of the goats, which fed upon nothing but the leaves of the cistus. They still observe the same process ; and the Abbe Manite describes it at length in his account of Cyprus. The ledum is a species of cistus. 137 Enormous length of far!.] — The following description of the broad-tailed sheep, from Pennant, takes away from the seeming improbability of this account. '' This species, says Mr. Pennant, " is conmion in Syria, Barbary. and ^Ethiopia. Some of tlieir tails rninoL laai X^piruvtlf;. — v. 563. Yet THALIA. J299 The name Eridaniis is certainly not barbarous, it is of Greek derivation, and, as I should con- ceive, introduced by one of our poets. I have endeavoured, but without success, to meet with some one who from ocular observation might de- scribe to me the sea which lies in that part of Europe. It is nevertheless certain, that both our tin and our amber ^*'^ are brought from those extreme regions. Yet it is not an improbable conjecture of bis commentator Hill, that the promontory of Cornwall might perhaps at first be considered as another island. Diodorus Siculus describes the carrying of tin from the Cassiterides, and from Britain, to the northern coast of France, and thence on horses to Marseilles, thirty days journey ; this must be a new trade established by the Romans, who employed great perse- verance to learn the secret from the Phoenicians. Strabo tells us of one Phoenician captain, who finding himself fol- lowed by a Roman vessel, purposely steered into the shal- lows, and thus destroyed both his own ship and the other ; his life, however, was saved, and he was rewarded by his countrymen for his patriotic resolution. Eustathius, in his comment on Dionysius, reckons also ten Cassiterides ; but his account aftbrds no new proof, as it is manifestly copied from Strabo, to the text of which author it affords a remarkable correction. — T. My friend Major Rennell observes, that what is related by Diodorus Siculus concerning the island to which tin was carried at low water, seems to point to Cornwall. The island might be St. JNIichael's Mount, in Mount's Bay. i-*o Ambsr.'] — Amber takes its name from ambra, the Ara- bian name for this substance ; the science of electricity is so called from electrum, the Greek word for amber. This term of electricity is now applied not only to the power of 300 T H A L I A. CXVI. It is certain that in the north of Eu- rope* there is a prodigious quantity of gold; but how it is produced I am not able to tell with certainty. It is affirmed indeed, tliat the Ari- maspif, a people who have but one eye, take this gold away violently from the griffins ; but I can never persuade myself ^lat there are any men who, having but one eye, enjoy in all other attracting lighter bodies, which amber possesses, but to many other powers of a similar nature. Amber is certainly not of the use, and consequently not of the value, which it has been, but it is still given in medicine, and is, as I am in- formed, the basis of all varnishes. It is found in various places, but Prussia is said to produce the most and the best." — T. * By the north of Europe, the north-west part of Asia is intended. The Europe of Herodotus is extended indefi- nitely to the east, Asia being placed to the south rather than to the east of Europe. t Of this fable, Milton makes a happy use in his second book of Paradise Lost : As when a griffin thro' the wilderness With winged course, o'er hill or mossy dale. Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd The guarded gold. Lucan speaks of the Arimaspians as a people who orna- mented their hair with gold. Auroque ligatas Substringens Arimaspe comas. Pliny relates the same fable with Herodotus. See Nat, Jlist, 1. vii.c. 2. See again Melpomene, 13 and 2?. T H A I. I A. 301 respects the nature and qualities of other human beings. Thus much seems unquestionable, that these extreme parts of the world contain within themselves things the most beautiful as well as rare. CXVII. There is in Asia a large plain, sur- rounded on every part by a ridge of hills, through which there are five different apertures. It for- merly belonged to the Chorasmians, who inhabit those hills in common with the Hyrcanians, Par- thians, Sarangensians, and Thomaneans ; but after the subjection of these nations to Persia, it became the property of the great king. From these surrounding hills there issues a large river called Aces*: this formerly, being conducted through the openings of the mountain, watered the several countries above mentioned. But when these regions came under the power of the Persians, the apertures were closed, and gates placed at each of them, to prevent the passage of * This story, so improbably told, seems to relate either to the river Oxus, or to the Ochus, both of which have un- dergone considerable changes in their courses, partly by the management of dams, partly by their own depositions, for they certainly flow near the countries of the Chorasmians, the Hyrcanians, and Parthians ; but the Saranga?ans, if taken for the people of Zarang, that is, Segistan, as no doubt they ought to be, are out of the question as to any connection with these rivers. — Rchik/L 30^^ T H A I. I A. tlie river. Thus on the inner side, from the waters having no issue, this plain became a sea, and the neighbouring nations, deprived of then- ac- customed resource, were reduced to the extremest distress from tlie want of water. In winter they, in common with other nations, had the benefit of the rains, but in summer, after sowing their mil- let and sesamum, they required water but in vain. Not being assisted in their distress, the inha- bitants of both sexes hastened to Persia, and pre- senting themselves before the palace of the king, made loud complaints. In consequence of this, the monarch directed the gates to be ojK^ned to- wards those parts where water was most imme- diately wanted ; ordering them again to be closed after the lands had been sufficiently refreshed : the same was done with respect to them all, be- ginning where moisture was wanted the most. I have, however, been informed, that this is only granted in consideration of a large donative above the usual tribute. CXVIII. Intaphernes, one of the seven who had conspired against the magus, lost his life from the following act of insolence. Soon after the death of the usurpers, he went to the palace, with the view of having a conference with the king ; for the conspirators had mutually agreed, that, except the king should happen to be in bed witli his wife, they might any of them have access T H A L I A. 303 to the royal presence, without sending a pre- vious messenger. Intaphernes, not thinking any introduction necessary, was about to enter, but the porter and the introducing officer* prevented him, pretending that the king was retired with one of his wives. He, not believing their asser- tion, drew his sword, and cut off their ears and noses; then taking the bridle from his horse, he tied them together, and so dismissed them. CXIX. In this condition they presented them- selves before the king, telling him why they had been thus treated. Darius, thinking that this miffht have been done wdth the consent of the other conspirators, sent for them separately, and desired to know whether they approved of what had happened. As soon as he was convinced that Intaphernes had perpetrated this deed without any communication with the rest, he ordered him, his son, and all his family, to be taken into custody; having many reasons to suspect, that in' concert with his friends he might excite a sedi- tion : he afterwards commanded them all to be put in chains, and prepared for execution. The wife of Intaphernes then presented herself before the royal palace, exhibiting every demonstration * Introducing cfficer.] — This was an officer of the highest rank in the empire, as appears from both Cornelius Nepos and jElian. 304 T H A I. I A. of grief*. As slie regularly continued this con- duct, her frequent appearance at length excited the compassion of Darius; who thus addressed her hy a messenger : " Woman, king Darius " offers you the liherty of any individual of your " family, Avhom you may most desire to pre- " serve." After some deliberation with herself, she made this reply : " If the king will grant mc •' the life of any one of my family, I choose my *' brother in preference to the rest." Her de- termination greatly astonished the king ; he sent to her therefore a second message to this effect : " The king desires to know why you have thought " proper to pass over your children and your " husband, and to preserve your brother ; who " is certainly a more remote connection than " your children, and cannot be so dear to you * Gncf.~\ — Bruce amuses himself and his readers with drawing a parallel between the manners of the Abyssinians and those of the ancient Persians. In one place he goes so far as to intimate that Abyssinia might not improbably have been colonized from Persia. But he here exhibits a notable proof of his extreme carelessness and inaccuracy, for in referring to this passage, after telling us, that in Abyssinia it was the cus- tom for supplicants to crowd round the royal palace with noisy complaints of their grievances, he says, Herodotus tells us that in Persia the people in great crowds and of both sexes come roaring and crying to the door of the palace, and Intaphernes is also said to come to the door of the king, making great lamentations. Herodotus expressly says it was the wife of Intaphernes; Iiilaphcrnes himself w;is in chains. THALIA. 305 " as your husband ?' She auswcrcd thus : " O " king ! if it please the deity, I may have an- *' other husband ; and if I be deprived of these, " may have other children ; but as my parents " are both of them dead, it is certain that I can "have no other brother ^^^" The answer ap- ^*^ I can have no other brother.'] — This very singular and, I do not scruple to add, preposterous sentiment, is imitated very minutely by Sophocles, in the Antigone. That the reader may the better understand, by comparing the diflerent application of these words, in the historian and the poet, I shall subjoin a part of the argument of the Antigone. Eteocles and Polynices were the sons of QLdipus, and suc- cessors of his power ; they had agreed to reign year by year alternately ; but Eteocles breaking the contract, the brothers determined to decide the dispute in a single combat; they fought, and mutually slew each other. The first act of their uncle Creon, who succeeded to the throne, was to forbid the rites of sepulture to Polynices, denouncing immediate death upon whoever should dare to bury him. Antigone trans- gressed this ordinance, and was detected in the fact of bury- ing her brother; she was commanded to be interred alive; and what follows is part of what is suggested by her situation and danger : And thus, my Polynices, for my care Of thee, I am rewarded, and the good Alone shall praise me : for a husband dead. Nor, had I been a mother, for my children Would I have dar'd to violate the laws. — Another husband and another child Might sooth affliction ; but, my parents dead, A brother's loss can never be repair 'd. Franklin's Sophocles. The reader will not forget to observe, that' the piety of An- tigone is directed to a lifeless corpse, but tliat of the wife of Vol. II. X 306 T H A I. I A. pearcd to Darius very judicious ; indeed he was so well pleased with it, that he not only gave the woman the life of her hrother, but also pardoned her eldest son ; the rest were all of them put to death. Thus, at no great interval of time, pe- rished one of the seven conspirators. CXX. About the time of the last illness of Cambyses, the following accident happened. The governor of Sardis was a Persian, named Oroetes*, who had been promoted by Cyrus. This man conceived the atrocious design of ac- complishing the death of Polycrates of Samos, by whom he had never in word or deed been in- jured, and whose person he never had beheld. His assigned motive was commonly reported to be this : Oroetes one day sitting at the gates of Intaphernes, to her living brother, which is surely less repug- nant to reason, and the common feelings of the human heart, not to speak of the superior claims of duty. There is an incident similar to this in Lucian : — See the tract called Toxaris, or Amicitia, where a Scythian is de- scribed to neglect his wife and children, whilst he incurs the greatest danger to preserve his friend from the flames. " Other children," says he, " I may easily have, and they are at best but a precarious blessing ; but such a friend I could no where obtain." — T. * Historians are not quite agreed about the name of this man. He is called by some Orontes. See ^^alerius Maximus, book 6. chap. 9- Comprehensum enim Orontes Darii Regis Pra?fectus in excelsissimo montis vertice cruci affixit. Lucian, however, in more than one place, calls him Orontes. T II A L I A. 307 the palace^*" with another Persian, whose name was Mitrobates, governor of Dascylium, entered into a conversation with him, which at lengtli ter- minated in disjiute. The subject about which they contended was military virtue : " Can you,'' says Mitrobates to Oroetes, " have any preten- " sions to valour, wlio have never added Samos " to the dominions of your master, contiguous as " it is to your province ; and which indeed may " so easily be taken, that one of its own citizens " made himself master of it, with the help of " fifteen men in arms, and still retains the su- " preme authority?" This made a deep impres- sion upon the mind of Oroetes ; but without me- ditating revenge against the person who had af- fronted him, he determined to effect the death of Polycrates, on whose account he had been reproached. 1*^ At the gates of the palace.^ — In the Greek, it is at the king's gate. The grandees waited at the gate of the Persian kings : — This custom, estabhslied by Cyrus, continued as long as the monarchy, and at this day, in Turkey, we say the Otto- man port, for the Ottoman court. — Larxher. Ignorance of this custom has caused several mistakes, par- ticularly in the history of INIordecai, in the book of Esther, who is by many authors, and even by Prideaux, represented as meanly situated when placed there. Many traces of this custom may be found in Xenophon's Cyropa^dia. Plutarch, in his life of Themistocles, uses the expression of those at the king's gate, tuv tire dvpa fiaaiXsu^, as a general designation for nobles and state officers. — See Brisson, dc Regno Persarum, lib. i.~T. X 2 f30S THALIA. CXXI. There are some, but not many, avIio atiirm tiiat Oroctcs sent a messenger to Samos, to propose some cpiestion to Polycrates, but of wliat nature is unknown ; and tliat he found Po- lycrates in the men s apartment, reclining on a couch, with Anacrcon of Teos '^' by his side. The man advanced to deliver his message ; but Polycrates, either by accident, or to demonstrate the contempt ^'^ in which he held Oroites, con- ^"^^ Anacrcon of Tcos.'] — It is by no means astonishing to find, in the court of a tyrant, a poet who is eternally singing in praise of wine and love : his verses are full of the enco- miums of Polycrates. How difl'erent was the conduct of Py- tliagoras ! That philosopher, perceiving that tyranny was established in Samos, went to /Egypt, and from thence to Baljyion, for the sake of improvement: returning to his coun- try, he found that tyranny still subsisted ; he went therefore to Italy, and there finished his days. — harchvr. This poet was not only beloved by Polycrates, he was the favourite also of liipparchus the Athenian tyrant. And, notwithstanding the inference which Larcher seems inclined to draw, from contrasting his conduct with that of Pythagoras, he was called co^ot by Socrates himself; and the terms vij(j>0€ Kui oyaQof, are applied to him by Athena;us. By the way, much as has been said on the compositions of Anacreon by II. Stephens. Scaliger, jNI. Dacier, and others, many of the learned are in doubt whether the works ascribed to him by the moderns are genuine. Anacreontic verse is so called, from its being much used by Anacreon; it consists of three Iambic feet and a half, of which there is no instance in the Lyrics of Horace. — See the Prolegomena to Barnes's Anacreoti, § 12. '** DcmoHstratc the contempt.] — This behaviour of Poly- crates, which was doubtless intended to be expressive of THALIA. 309 tinned all the time he was spcakiiijj-, with his face towards the wall, and did not vouchsafe any reply- CXXII. These are the two assigned motives for the destruction of Polycrates : every one will prefer that which seems most prohable. Oroctcs, who lived at JMagnesia, which is on the banks of the Mseander^*'', sent Myrsus the Lydian, son of Gyges, with a message to Polycrates at Samos. With the character of Polycrates, Oroctes was well acquainted ; for, except JMinos ^'" the Cnos- sian, or whoever before him accomplished it, he was the first Greek who formed the design of making himself master of the sea. But as far as historical tradition may be depended upon, Poly- crates is the only individual who projected the subjection of Ionia and the islands. Perfectly aware of these circumstances, Oroctes sent this message : contempt, brings to mind the story of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, who at an interview with the Grand Vizier, ex- pressed his contempt and indignation by tearing the ministei's robe with his spur, and afterwards leaving the apartmeul without saying a word, ^ ^*^ On the banks of the Meander.] — This is added in order to distinguish that city from the Magnesia on the Sipylui, lying between Sardes and Phocaea. ^•*^ Except Mhws.] — What Herodotus says of the maritime power of Minos, is confirmed by Thucydides and Diodoriis Siculus. His testimony concerning Polycrates is supporlcd also by Thucydides and Strabo. — Larchcr. 310 T II A L I A. " OrCETES to POLYCRATES. " I understand that you are revolving some " vast project in your mind, but have not money " responsible to your views. Be advised by me, " and you will at the same time promote your " own advantage and preserve me. I am in- " formed, and 1 believe it to be true, that king " Cambyscs has determined on my death. lle- " ceive, therefore, me with my wealth, part of " which shall be at your disposal, part at mine : " with the assistance of this, you may easily ob- " tain the sovereignty of Greece. If you have " any suspicions, send to me some one who is in " your intimate confidence, and he shall be con- vinced by demonstration."' « CXXIII. With these overtures, Polycratcs was so exceedingly delighted, that he was eager to comply with them immediately, for his love of money was excessive. He sent, first of all, to examine into the truth of the affair, INIa^andrius his secrctarv, called so after his father. This ]Ma}andrius, not long afterwards, placed as a sacred donative in the temple of Juno, the ricli furniture of the apartment of Polycratcs. Oroetcs, knowing the motive for which this man came, contrived and executed the following artifice : He filled eight chests nearly to the top with stones, then covering over the surface with gold. THALIA. 311 they were tied together ^*\ as if ready to be re- moved. INIaeandrius on his arrival saw the above chests, and returned to make his report to Po- lycrates. CXXIV. Polycrates, notwithstanding the pre- dictions of the soothsayers, and the remonstrances of his friends, was preparing to meet Oroetes, when his daughter in a dream saw this vision : She beheld her father aloft in the air, washed by Jupiter, and anointed by the sun. Terrified by ^*^ Tied together. 1 — Before the use of locks, it was tlie custom in more ancient times to secure things with knots : of these some were so difficult, that he alone who possessed the secret was able to unravel them. The famous Gordian knot must be known to every one ; this usage is often also alluded to by Homer: Then bending with full force, around he roU'd A labyrinth of bands in fold on fold, Closed with Circsean art. According to Eustathius, keys were a more modern inven- tion, for which the Lacedeemonians are to be thanked. Upon the above passage from Eustathius, Larcher re- marks, that it is somewhat singular, that the Lacedaemo- nians, whose property was in common, should be the inven- tors of keys. The version of Pope which I have given in the foregoing lines, is very defective, and certainly inadequate to the expression of AurtK EirrjprvE irw/ia, 6oo>t ^' siri Sefffiov 'itjXe YloiKiXoy^ 6v von fiiv ^tSae (j>pttTi iroTVia K'jOK'J.— ■». 312 THALIA. this incident, she used every means in her power to prevent his going to meet Oroetes ; and as he was ahout to embark for this purpose, on board a fifty-oared galley, she persisted in auguring un- favourably of his expedition. At this he was so incensed, as to declare, that if he returned safe she should remain long unmarried. To this she expressed herself very desirous to submit ; being willing to continue long a virgin"", rather than be deprived of her father. CXXV. Polycrates, disregarding all that had been said to him, set sail to meet Oroetes. He was accompanied by many of his friends, and amongst the rest by Dcmocedcs'% the son of ^^''^ Long a virgin.] — To die a virgin, or without having any children, was amongst the ancients esteemed a very serious calamity. Electra in Sophocles enumerates this in the catalogue of her misfortunes : - - - A.TtKyOi TaXaiv, ayvfX(l>£vrog aiev oij^voi. — 166, Electra makes a similar complaint, in the Orestes of Euri- pides ; as does also Polyxena at the point of death, in the Mecuba of Euripides. — T. 1*9 Dcmocedes.^ — Of this personage, a farther account is given in the fourth book. He is mentioned also by .^lian, in his Various History, book viii. chap. 17; and also by AthenaBUS, book xii. chap. i. which last author informs us, that the physicians of Crotona were, on account of De- mocedes, esteemed the lirbt m Greece. — See also chap. 131 of this book. — T. T H A L I A. 813 Calliplioii ; he was a physician of Croteiia, and the most skilful practitioner of his time. As soon as Poly crates arrived at JNI agnosia, he was put to a miserable death, unworthy of his rank and superior endowments. Of all the princes who ever reigned in Greece, those of Syracuse alone excepted, none equalled Polycrates in mag- nificence. Oroctes, having basely put him to death ^""^j fixed his body to a cross : his attend- ants he sent back to Saraos, telling them, " They " ought to be thankful, that he had not made " them slaves." The strangers, and the ser- vants of those who had accompanied Polycrates, he detained in servitude. The circumstance of his being suspended on a cross, fulfilled the vision of the daughter of Polycrates : for he was washed by Jupiter, that is to say, by the rain, and he was anointed by the sun, for it extracted the moisture from his body. The great prosperity of Poly- ^^° Put him to death.'] — The Persians generally beheaded or flayed those whom they crucified : see an account of their treatment of Histia?us, book vi. chap. 30, and of Leonidas, book vii. 238.— T. The beautiful and energetic lines which Juvenal applied to Sejanus, are remarkably apposite to the circumstances and fate of Polycrates : Qui inimicos optabat honores, Et nimias poscebat opes, nunierosa parabat Excelste turris tabulata, unde altior esset Casus, et impulsce prceceps inmiane ruinaj. SI 4 T II A L I A. crates terminated in this Unfortunate death, which indeed had heen foretold liim by Amasis king of /Egypt. CXXVI. But it was not long before Oroetcs paid ample vengeance to the manes of Polycrates. After the death of Cambyses, and the usurpation of the magi, Oroctes, who had never deserved wtII of the Persians, wliom tlic JNIcdes had fraudu- lently deprived of the supreme authority, took the advantage of the disorder of the times '^^, to put to death INIitrobates, the governor of Das- cylium, and his son Cranapes. INIitrobates was the person who had formerly reproached Oroetes ; and both he and his son were highly esteemed in Persia. In addition to his other numerous and atrocious crimes, he compassed the death of a messenger, sent to him from Darius, for no other reason but because the purport of the message was not agreeable to him. He ordered the man to be way-laid in his return, and both he and his horse were slain, and their bodies concealed. CXXVI I. As soon as Darius ascended the throne, he determined to punish Oroctes for his various enormities, but more particularly for the ^^1 Disorder of the timesi] — For tv ravrrj rrf ctpxfj, which prevailed in preceding editions, Wesseling proposes to read ev TavTt] rapayrif which removes all perplexity. — T. THALIA. 315 nnurder of JMitrobates and his son. He did not tliink it prudent to send an armed force openly against him, as the state was still unsettled, and as his own authority had been so recently ob- tained ; he was informed, moreover, that Oroetes possessed considerable strength : his government extended over Phrygia, Lydia, and Ionia, and he was regularly attended by a guard of a thousand men. Darius was, therefore, induced to adopt this mode of proceeding: He assembled the noblest of the Persians, and thus addressed them : " Which of you, O Persians ! will undertake " for me the accomplishment of a project which " requires sagacity alone, without military aid, or any kind of violence ? for where wisdom is required, force is of little avail ; — which of you will bring me the body of Oroetes, alive " or dead ? He has never deserved well of the " Persians ; and, in addition to his numerous " crimes, he has killed two of our countrymen, " JMitrobates and his son. He has also, with " intolerable insolence, put a messenger of mine " to death : we must prevent, therefore, his per- ** petrating any greater evils against us, by put- " ting him to death." CXXVIII. When Darius had thus spoken, thirty Persians offered to accomplish what he wished. As they were disputing on the subject, the king ordered the decision to be made by lot ; 316 T II A L I A. vvliicli fell upon Bni>-anis, the son of ^Vrtoiites. To attain the end which he })roposctl, he caused a number of letters to be written on a variety of subjects, and sealing them with the seal of Darius, he proceeded with them to Sardis. As soon as he came to the presence of Ora^tcs, he delivered the letters one by one to the king's secretary ; one of whom is regularly attendant upon the governors of provinces. The motive of Ijagaius in delivering the letters separately was to observe the disposition of the guards, and how far they might be inclined to revolt from Oroetes. When he saw that they treated the letters with great respect '"'", and their contents with still greater, he delivered one to this effect: " Per- " sians, king Darius forbids you serving any " longer Oroetes as guards :" in a moment they threw down their arms. Bagajus, observing their prompt obedience in this instance, assumed still greater confidence, he delivered the last of his letters, of which these w ere the contents : " King " Darius commands the Persians who are at " Sardis to put Orcetes to death ;" without hesita- 152 'ficatcd the letters ■with great rtspeet..] — At the present period, the distinction observed with regard to letters in the East is this : those sent to common persons are rolled up, and not sealed ; those sent to noblemen and princes are sealed up, and inclosed in rich bags of silk or satm curiously em- broidered.— T. T H A L I A. 317 tioii they drew their swords and killed him. In this manner was the death of Polycrates of Samos revenged on Oroctes the Persian. CXXIX. Upon the death of Oroetes, his ef- fects were all removed to Snsa. Not long after which, Darius, as he was engaged m the chace, in leaping from his horse, twisted his foot with so mucii violence, that the ancle-bone was dislocated. Having at his court some iEgyptians, supposed to be the most skilful of the medical profession, he trusted to their assistance. They, however, increased the evil, by twisting and otherwise violently handling the part affected: from the extreme pain which he endured, the king passed seven days and as many nights without sleep. In this situation, on the eighth day, some one ventured to recommend Democedes of Crotona, having before heard of his reputation at Sardis. Darius immediately sent for him : he was dis- covered amongst the slaves of Oroetes, where he had continued in neglect, and was brought to the king just as he was found, in chains and in rags. CXXX. As soon as he appeared, Darius asked him if he had any knowledge of medicine ? In the apprehension that if he discovered his art, he should never have the power of returning to Greece, Democedes for a wliilc dissembled; S18 T H A L I A. Avhich Darius perceiving, he ordered those who had brought hiui, to produce the iustrumcuts of punishment and torture. Democedes began tlien to be more explicit, and confessed that, although he possessed no great knowledge of the art, yet by his connection with a physician he liad ob- tained some little proficiency. The manage- ment of the case was then intrusted to him ; he accordingly applied such medicines and strong fomentations as were customary in Greece ; by which means Darius, who began to despair of ever recovering the intire use of his foot, was not only enabled to sleep, but in a short time perfectly restored to health. In acknowledgment of his cure, Darius presented him with two pair of fetters of gold : upon which Democedes ven- tured to ask the king, whether, in return for his restoring him to health, he wislicd to double his calamity ^^^ ? The king, delighted with the 153 £)ouble his calamiti/.'\ — The ancients were very fond of this play upon words : — See, in the Septem contra Thebas of iEschylus, a play on the word Polynices : Kat TTokvVHKiK ^XovT acrtftec ^lavoi^ — v. 835. The particular point in this passage, is omitted by Mr. Potter, probably because he did not find it suited to the genius of the English language. See also Ovid's description of the flower : Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscribit et ai ai Flos habet inscriptum. T. THALIA. 319 reply, sent the man to the apartments of his women : the eunnchs who conducted him informed them, that this was the man who had restored the king to life ; accordingly, every one of them taking out a vase of gold ^^\ gave it to Democedes with the case. The present was so very valuable, that a servant who followed him behind, whose name was Sciton, by gathering up the staters which fell to the ground, obtained a prodigious sum of money. CXXXI. The following incident was what in- duced Democedes to forsake Crotona, and attach himself to Polycrates. At Crotona he suffered continual restraint from the austere temper of his father ; this becoming insupportable, he left him, and went to iEgina. In the first year of his residence at this place, he excelled the most ^^* Taking out a vase of gold.] — This is one of the most perplexed passages in Herodotus ; and the conjectures of the critics are proportionably numerous. The great difficulty consists in ascertaining what is designed by vTorvTrrHaa and 6t]Krj. The (ptaXtj appears to have been a jar or vase, probably itself of gold. Few have doubted that the passage is cor- rupt : the best conjectural reading gives this sense, " that $ach, taking gold out of a chest in a vase ('fyffaj/r£c, which was the custom of the Persians, and was also dene with respect to the islands of Chios, Lesbos, and Tcnedos : see book vi. chap. 31, where their numner of doing it is described. — T. ^^ Without an inhabitant.'] — Strabo imputes this want of inhabitants to the cruelty of Syloson, and nut to the severity of the Persians. — hardier. THALIA. 337 which he had, as well as from a disorder which seized his privities. CL. Whilst the expedition against Samos was on foot, the Babylonians, being very well pre- pared, revolted. During the reign of the Magus, and whilst the seven were ene-ao-cd in their con- spiracy against him, they had taken advantage of the confusion of the times to provide against a siege, and their exertions had never been dis- covered. When they had once resolved on the re- covery of their liberties, they took this measure : — Excepting their mothers, every man chose from his family the female whom he liked best, the re- mainder were all of them assembled together and strangled ^°^ Their reserve of one woman was to bake their bread ^^^ ; the rest were destroyed to prevent a famine. CLI. On the first intelligence of this event, 167 Assembled together and strangled.] — Prideaux, making mention of this strange and unnatural action, omits inform- ing his readers that the Babylonians made an exception in favour of their mothers ; but by this barbarous action the pro- phecy of Isaiah against this people was very signally ful- filled :— " But these two things shall come to thee in a moment, in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood ; they shall come upon thee in their perfection, for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments." Isaiah, xlvii. g. — T. ^^ Bake their bread.'] — This anciently was tlie employment of the women: see book vii. chap. 187. — T. Vol. II. Z 338 T H ALIA. Darius assembled his forces, and marched against them : on his arrival before the city, he besieged it in form. This, however, made so little impres- sion upon them, that they assembled upon the ramparts, amused themselves with dancing, and treated Darius and his army with the extremest contempt. One among them exclaimed, " Per- " sians, why do you lose your time ? if you be " wise, depart. When mules produce young ^^''•', *' you shall take Babylon." This was the speech of a Babylonian, not believing such a thing possible. CLII. A whole year and seven months having been consumed before tlie place, Darius and his army began to be hopeless with respect to the ^69 Mules produce i/oung.] — Upon this passage M. Larcher remarks, that mules hut seldom engender. As I have never seen nor heard of any well authenticated account of such a circumstance, I give the reader the following passage from Pennant, with some confidence of its heing invariably the case. " Neither mules, nor the spurious oflspring of any other animal, generate any farther : all these productions may be looked upoti as monsters ; therefore, nature, to pre- serve the original species of animals entire and pure, wisely stops, in instances of deviation, the powers of propagation." What Theophrastus or Pliny may have asserted, in con- tradiction to the above, will weigh but very little against the unqualified assertion of so able a naturalist as Mr. Pennant. The circumstance was ever considered as a prodigv, as appears from the following lines of .Juvenal : Egregium, sanctumque viruiii si cerno, bimembri Hoc monstrum puero, vel miranti sub aratro Piscibus inventis ot fivfa- comparo ?iiiihr. — T. THALIA. 339 event. They had capplicd all the oflPensive engines, and every stratagem, particularly those which Cyrus had before successfully used against the Babylonians ; but every attempt proved inef- fectual, from the unremitting vigilance of the besieged. CLIII. In the twentieth month of the siege, the following remarkable prodigy happened to Zojiyrus, son of JMegabyzus, who was one of the seven that dethroned the JMagus : one of the mules employed to carry his provisions, produced a young one ; which, when it was first told him, he disbe- lieved, and desired to see it; forbidding those who had witnessed the fact to disclose it, he revolved it seriously in his mind ; and remembering the words of the Babylonian, who had said the city should be taken when a mule brought forth, he from this conceived that Babylon was not impregnable. The prophecy itself, and the mule's having a young one, seemed to indicate something supernatural. CLIV. Having satisfied himself that Babylon might be taken, he went to Darius, and inquired if the capture of this city was of particular import- ance to him. Hearing that it really was, he began to think how he might have the honour of effecting it by himself: for in Persia there is no more cer- tain road to greatness, than by the performance of illustrious actions. He conceived there was no more probable means of obtaining his end. 340 T H A I. I A. tliiin first to mutilate himself, and thus pass over to the enemy. He made no scruple to Avomid himsilf beyond the power of being healed, for he cut off his nose and his ears, and clipping his hair close, so as to give it a mean appearance^'", he scourged himself; and in this condition pre- sented himself before Darius. CLA^. When the king beheld a man of his illustrious rank in so deplorable a condition, he instantly leaped in anger from his throne ^'\ and asked who had dared to treat him with such barbarity ? Zopyrus made this reply, " No man, " Sir, except yourself, could have this power "over my person : I alone have thus disfigured " my body, which I was promjited to do from ^''^ To give it a mean uppearancc.'\ — I do not remember an instance of the hair being cut oft' as a punishment; it was frequently done as expressive of mourning in the most remote times; and it was one characteristic mark of the servile condition. See Juvenal, sat. v. book i. 17 0. Omnia ferre Si potes et debes pulsandum vcrtice raso Pra>bebis quandoque caput nee dura tenebis Flagra pati, his epulis et tali dignus amico. It was also, as 1 have elsewhere observed, done in ridiculo. ^^^ Leaped in anger from Ins t/none.] — This incident, with the various circumstances attending it, j)roperly considered, would furnish an artist with an excellent subject for an histo- rical painting. The city of Babylon at a distance, the Persian camp, the king's tent, himself and principal nobles in deep consultation, with the sudden ai)pearance of /()j>yrus in the niulilattd condition here described, might surely be intio- duccd and arranged with tlic inott admirable effect. — T. T H A L I A. 341 " vexation at beholding the Assyrians * thus " mock us." — " Wretched man," answered the king, " do you endeavour to disguise the shameful *' action you have perpetrated, under an honour- " able name ? Do you suppose that because " you have thus deformed yourself, the enemy " will the sooner surrender? I fear what you " have done has been occasioned by some defect " of your reason." " Sir," answered Zopyrus, " If " I had previously disclosed to you my intentions, " you would have prevented their accomplish- " ment ; my present situation is the result of my " own determination only. If you do not fail " me, Babylon is our own. I propose to go, " in the condition in which you see me, as a " deserter to the Babylonians : it is my hope to " persuade them that I have suffered these cruel- " ties from you, and that they will, in consequence, " give me some place of military trust. Do " you, on the tenth day after my departure, " detach to the gate of Semiramis ^'" a thousand '* Assyrians and Babylonians are used as synonymous terms in Clio, c. 106, 17s, as well as elsewhere, 172 The gate of Semiramis.] — Mr. Bryant's remark on thijs word is too curious to be omitted : — Semiramis was an emblem, and the name was a compound, of Sama-Ramas, or Ramis : it signified the divine token, the type of providence ; and as a military ensign, it may with some latitude be interpreted the standard of the Most High. It consisted of the figure of a dove, which was probably en- circled with the Iris, as those two emblems were often repre- sented together. All who went under that standard, or who 3i2 THALIA. " men of your army, ^vhose loss will be of no " consequence ; at an interval of seven days " more, send to the Ninian gates other two " thousand ; again, after twenty days, let another " party, to the number of four thousand, be " ordered to the Chaldean gates, but let none of " these detachments have any weapons but their " swords ; after this last-mentioned period, let " your whole army advance, and surround the " walls. Be careful that Persians are stationed " at the Belidian and Cissian gates. I think that " the Babylonians, after witnessing my exploits in ** the field, will entrust me with the keys of those " gates. Doubt not but the Persians, with my " aid, will then accomplish the rest." CTjVI. After giving these injunctions, he pro- ceeded towards the gates ; and, to be consistent in the character which he assumed ^^^ , he fre- paid any deference to that emblem, were styled Semarim and Samorim. One of the gates of Babylon was styled the gate of Semiramis, undoubtedly from having the sacred emblem of Sama-Ramas, or the dove, engraved by way of distinction over it. Probably the lofty obelisk of Semiramis, mentioned by Diodorus, was named from the same hieroglyphic. — This note was inserted in the first edition, but I now think it liable to many objections. Sama-Rama is an Indian deity, and has nothing to do with a dove. It is an emblem of power. It seems much more reasonable and natural to suppose that the gates of Babylon were named from the ancient monarchs, Bel, Ninus, S^c. 173 The character uhich he as.svnicd.] — Many circumstances in the history of Zopyrus resemble those of Sinon in tht yEncid : T H A L I A. 343 quciitly stopped to look beliiiid him. Tlic sen- tinels on the watch-towers, observing this, ran down to the gate, which, opening a little, they inquired who he was, and what he wanted? When he told them his name was Zopyrus, and that he had deserted from the Persians, they con- ducted him before their magistrates. He then began a miserable tale of the injuries he had suf- fered from Darius, for no other reason but that he had advised him to withdraw his army, seeing no likelihood of his taking the city. "And " now," says he, " men of Babylon, I come " a friend to you, but a fatal enemy to Darius " and his army. I am well acquainted with all " his designs, and his treatment of me shall not " be vmrevenged." Qui se ignoUinvvenientibus ultio Hoc ipsum ut strueret, Trojamque aperiret Achivis, Obtulerat, fidens animi, atque in utrumque paratus Seu versare dolos, seu certe occumbere morli. — ■ Bolh tell a miserable tale of injuries received from their countrymen, and both afiect an extraordinary zeal to dis- tinguish themselves in the service of their natural enemies. Sinon says of himself; Cui neque apud Danaos usquam locus, et super ipsi DardanidiE infensi poenas cum sanguine poscunt. — ■ Again he says, Fas mihi Graiorum sacrata resolvere jura, Fas odisse viros, atque omnia ferre sub auras Si qua tegunt : teneur patri;v nee legibus ullis. — T, 1344 T II A L I A. CLVII. When the Babylonians beheld a Per- sian of such high rank deprived of his ears and nose, and covered with wounds and blood, they entertained no doubts of his sincerity, or of the friendliness of his intentions towards them. They were prepared to accede to all that he desired; and on his requesting a military com- mand, they gave it him without hesitation. He then proceeded to the execution of what he had concerted with Darius. On the tenth day, at the head of some Babylonian troops, he made a sally from the town, and encountering the Per- sians, who had been stationed for this purpose by Darius, he put every one of them to death. The Babylonians, observing that his actions cor- responded with his professions, were full of ex- ultation, and were ready to yield him the most implicit obedience. A second time, at the head of a chosen detachment of the besieged, he ad- vanced from the town at the time appointed, and slew the two thousand soldiers of Darius. The joy of tlie citizens at this second exploit was so extreme, that the name of Zopyrus resounded witli praise from every tongue. The third time also, after the number of days agreed upon had passed, he led forth his troops, attacked and slauglitcred the four thousand. Zopyrus, after this, was every tiling with the Babylonians, so that tliey made him the commander of their army, and guardian of their walls. THALIA. 845 CLVIII. At the time appointed, Darius ad- vanced with all his forces to the walls. The per- fidy of Zopyrus then became apparent; for as soon as the Babylonians mounted the wall to repel the Persian assault, he immediately opened to his countrymen what are called the Belidian and Cissian gates. Those Babylonians who saw this transaction fled for refuge to the temple of Jupiter Belus ; they who saw it not, continued in their posts, till the circumstance of their being betrayed became notorious to all. CLIX. Thus was Babylon a second time taken. As soon as Darius became master of the place ^^^, he levelled the walls*, and took away the gates. 1"* Master of the place!] — Plutarch informs us, in his Apophthegms, that Xerxes being incensed against the Baby- lonians for revolting, after having conquered them a second time, forbad their carrying arms, and commanded them to employ their time in singing, music, and all kinds of dissi- pation, Sec, The Babylonians did not revolt under Xerxes. Plutarch assigns to him a fact, which regards Darius; however this may be, after the reduction of Babylon, the Persian monarchs fixed their residence in three great cities ; the winter they passed at Babylon, the summer at Media, doubtless at Ecba- tane, and the greater part of the spring at Susa. — Lurcher. * I think with INIajor Rennell that this expression must be understood with some reserve. The following are M. Rennell's words on tiiis subject : It must not be omitted that Herodotus states that Darius Hystaspes, on the taking of Babylon by the stratagem of 84G T H A h I A. neither of which thinj^s Cyrus had done before. He ordered three thousand of the most distin- guished nobility to be crucified: the rest were suffered to continue where they were. He took care also to provide them with women, for the IJabylonians, as we have before remarked, to pre- vent a famine, had strangled their wives. Darius ordered the neighbouring nations to send females to Babylon, each being obliged to furnish a sti- pulated number. These in all amounted to fifty thousand, from whom the Babylonians of the present day are descended. CLX. With respect to the merit of Zopyrus, in the opinion of Darius, it was exceeded by no Persian of any period, unless by Cyrus ; to him, Zopyrus, levelled the walls, and took away the gates ; neither of which things Cyrus had done before. But let it be re- marked that Darius lived about a century and a half before Alexander, in whose time the walls appear to have been in their original state, or at least nothing is said that implies the contrary. And it cannot be believed, if Darius had even taken the trouble to level thirty-four miles of so pro- digious a rampart as that of Babylon, that ever it would have been rebuilt in the maimer described by Ctesias, Cli- tarchus, and others, who describe it at a much later period. Besides, it would have been quite unnecessary to level more than a part of the wall, in order to la}' the place open, and in this way probably the historian ought to be understood. It is much to be lamented that no traveller has taken pains to investigate the site and ruins of Babylon, which would surely well repay the care and labour of the under- taking. THALIA. 347 indeed, he thought no one of his countrymen could possibly be compared. It is affirmed of Darius, that he used frequently to assert, that he would rather Zopyrus had suffered no injury, than have been master of twenty Babylons. He: rewarded him magnificently : every year he pre- sented him with the gifts deemed most honour- able in Persia; he made him also governor of Babylon for life, free from the payment of any tribute, and to these he added other marks of liberality. Megabyzus, who commanded in IEgy])t against the Athenians and their allies, was a son of this Zopyrus ; which JNlcgabyzus had a son named Zopyrus ^"^, who deserted from the Per- sians to the Athenians. '■^^ A son named Zopyrus^ — Zopyrus, son of Megabyzus, and grandson of the famous Zopyrus, revolted from Artaxerxes after the death of his father and mother, and advanced towards Athens, on account of the friendship which subsisted betwixt his mother and the Athenians. He went by sea to Caunus, and commanded the inhabitants to give up the place to the Atheni- ans who were with him. The Caunians replied, that they were willing to surrender it to him, but they refused to admit any Athenians. Upon this, he mounted the wall ; but a Cauuian, named Alcides, knocked him on the head with a stone. His grandmother Amestris afterwards crucilied this Caunian. — • Larcher. HERODOTUS. BOOK IV. MELPOMENE. CHAP. I. ARIUS, after the capture of Babylon, undertook an expe- dition against Scythia. Asia was now both populous and rich, and he was desirous of avenging on the Scythians, the injuries they had formerly committed, by entering Media, and defeating those who opposed them. During a period of twenty-eight years, the Scy- thians, as I have before remarked, retained the sovereignty of the Upper Asia ; entering into which, when in pursuit of the Cimmerians ^ they ^ Ci7nmenans.l^ — From this people came the proverb of Cim- merian darkness. We reach'd old ocean's utmost bounds, Where rocks control his waves with ever-during mounds ; There in a lonely land, and gloomy cells, 'J'he dusky nation of Cimmeria dwells : The 350 MELPOMENE. expelled the Medcs, its ancient possessors. After this long absence from their country, the Scy- thians were desirous to return, but here as great u labour awaited them, as they had experienced in their expedition into Media ; for the women, de- prived so long of their husbands, had connected themselves with their slaves, and they found a numerous body in arms ready to dispute their progress. The sun ne'er views tli' uncomfortable seats, When radiant he advances or retreats. Unhappy race ! whom endless night invades, Clouds the dull air, and wraps them round in shades. Odyss. book xi. Of this proverb, Ammianus Marcellinus makes a happy use, when censuring the luxury and effeminacy of the Roman iiobilitv. " If," says he, (I use the version of Mr. Gibbon,) *' a fly should presume to settle in the silken folds of their gilded umbrellas, should a sun-beam penetrate through some unguarded and imperceptible chink, they deplore their intolera- ble hardships, and lament in affected language that they were not born in the land of the Cimmerians, the regions of eter- nal darkness." Ovid also chooses the vicinity of Cimmeria as the properest place for the palace of the god of sleep : Est prope Cimmerios, longo spcluuca recessu, Mons cavus, ignavi domus et penetralia Somni, Quo nunquam radiis oriens, mediusve, cadensve Phcebus adire potest, nebula; cahgine mixta; Exhalantur humo, dubia?que crepuscula lucis. The region assigned to this people in ancient geography was part of European Scythia, now called Little Tartary. — T. MELPOMENE. 351 II. It is a custom with the Scythians to deprive all their slaves of sight " on account of the milk "', whicli is tlieir customary drink. They have a par- ticular kind of bone, shaped like a flute : this is 2 Deprive all their slaves of sight. ^ — Barbarous as this con- duct may appear to every humane reader, although practised amongst an unciviUzed race of men, he will be far more shock- ed when I remind him that in the most refined period of the Roman empire, those who were deemed the wisest and most virtuous of mankind did not scruple to use their slaves with yet more atrocious cruelty. It was customary at Rome to ex- pose slaves who were sick, old, and useless, to perish miserably in an island of the Tyber. Plutarch tells us, in his Life of Cato, that it was his custom to sell his old slaves for any price, to get rid of the burden. They were employed, and fre- quently in chains, in the most laborious offices, and for trivial otTences, and not seldom, on mere suspicion, were made to expire under the most horrid tortures that can be imagined. —T. 3 On account of the 7nilk.'] — Of this people, Homer speaks in the following lines : And where the far-fam'd Hippomolgian strays, Renown'd for justice and for length of days, Thrice happy race, that, innocent of blood, From milk innoxious seek their simple food. — //. xiii. Upon this subject, Larcher gives the following passage from Niebuhr : — " J'entendis et vis moi-m6me, a Bafra, que lorsqu'un Arabff trait la femelle du bufle, un autre lui fourre la main et Ic bras jusqu'au coude, dans la vulva, parce qu'on pietend sa- voir par experience qu'etant chatouillee de la sorte, elle donne plus de lait. Cette methode resemble beaucoup h, celle des Scythes.'' — We learn, from some lines of Anti- phanes, preserved in Athenreus, that the Scythians gave this inilk to their children as soon as they were born. 352 M E L P O M E N E. applied to the private parts of a mare, and blown into from the mouth. It is one man's office to blow, another's to milk the mare. Their idea is, that, the veins of the animal being thus inflated, the dugs are proportion ably filled. When the milk is thus obtained, they place it in deep wooden vessels, and the slaves are directed to keep it in continual agitation. Of this, that which remains at top * is most esteemed, what subsides is of inferior value. This it is which induces the Scy- thians to deprive all their captives of sight, for Ot ycvofxn'Oiaiy ivdiut; roic iraicion Aiaci^oaaiy iTiruy Kai jjotoy iriveiv yaka. " Do not those Scythians appear to you remarkably wise who give to their children, as soon as ever they are born, the milk of mares and cows ?" — T. * Remains at top.\—\s it not surprising, asks M. Larcher in this place, that neither the Greeks nor the Latins had any term in their language to express cream ? Butter also was unknown to the Greeks and Romans till a late period. Pliny speaks of it as a common article of food among barbarous nations, and used by them as an unction. The very name of butter {fiovrvpoy) which signifies cheese, or coaguhma of cow's milk, implies an imperfect notion of the thing. It is clear that Herodotus here describes the making of butter, though he knew no name for the product. Pliny remarks, that the barbarous nations were as peculiar in neglect- ing cheese, as in making butter. Spuma luctis, wliich that au- thor uses in describing what butter is, seems a very proper phrase for cream. Butter is often mentioned in Scripture ; see Harmer's curious accounts of the modes of making it in the East, vol. i. and iii. — T. M E L P O M E N E. 35'3 they do not cultivate the ground, but lead a pastoral ' life. III. From the uuioii of these slaves with the Scythian women, a numerous progeny was born, who, when informed of their origin, readily ad- vanced to oppose those, who vvcre returning from Media. Tlieir first exertion was to intersect the country by a large and deep trench*, which ex- tended from the mountains of Taurus, to the Palus ^ Lead a pastoral life.] — The influence of food or climate, which in a more improved state of society is suspended or subdued by so many moral causes, most powerfully con- tributes to form and to maintain the national character of barbarians. In every age, the immense plains of Scythia or Tart^ry have been inhabited by vagrant tribes of hunters and shepherds, whose indolence refuses to cultivate the earth, and whose restless spirit disdains the confinement of a sedentary life. — Gibbon. * It is by no means easy to conceive what mountains can here be intended. Larcher translates the passage as I do, and thus expresses himself in a note : The Chersonesus Taurica is surrounded on all sides by the Euxine, the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and the Palus Maeotica, except in one narrow neck which separates the gulph of Carcinitis from the Palus Mjeotis. It is in this spot, I suppose, that the trench mentioned by Herodotus was sunk. It commences at the spot called TaphrK, where the city Perekop now stands, which according to P. Briel in the Tar- tarian language signifies a trench. The Fmperdr Constantine Porphyrogenitus tells us that in his time this trench was filled up. The mountains of which Herodotus speaks were within Tauris ; there are none beyond it. ^ Vol. II. A A Perhaps 354 MELPOMENE. Maeotis. They then encamped opposite to the Scythians, who were endeavouring to effect their passage. \^arious engagements ensued, in which the Scythians ohtained no advantage. " My *' countrymen," at length one of them exclaimed, " what are we doing? In this contest with our " slaves, every action diminishes our numher, and *' by killing those who oppose us, the value of " victory decreases : let us throw aside our darts " and our arrows, and rush upon them only with " the whips which we use for our horses. Whilst " they see us with arms, they think themselves " our equals in birth and importance ; but as " soon as they shall perceive the whip in our " hands, they will be impressed with the sense of " their servile condition, and resist no longer." IV. The Scythians approved the advice ; their opponents forgot their former exertions, and fled : in this manner the Scythians obtained the sove- reignty of Asia ; and thus, after having been expelled by the INIedes, they returned to their country. From the above motives Darius, eager for revenge, prepared to lead an army against them. V. The Scythians affirm of their country that Perhaps, says my friend Major Rennell, the passage is cor- rupt, and it may be from some part of Tauris to the Palus INIceotis. — May it not then be the trench which separates the Peninsula of the Crimea from the main land? MELPOMENE. 355 it was of all others the last formed*^, which hap- pened in this manner : When this region was in its original and desert state, the first inhabitant was named Targitaus*, a son, as they say (but which to me seems incredible) of Jupiter, by a daughter of the Borysthenes. This Targitaus had three sons, Lipoxais, Arpoxais, and lastly Colaxais. Whilst they possessed the country, there fell from heaven into the Scythian district a plough, a yoke, an axe, and a goblet, all of gold. The eldest of the brothers was the first who saw them ; who, running to take them, was burnt by the gold. On his retiring, the second brother approached, and was burnt also. When these two had been repelled by the burning gold, last of all the youngest brother advanced; upon him the gold had no eflPect, and he carried it to his house. The two elder brothers, observing what had happened, resigned all authority to the youngest. VI. From Lipoxais those Scythians were de- ^ Last formed.^ — Justin informs us, that the Scythians pretended to be more ancient than the ^Egyptians. — T. * The fabulous accounts of the origin of the Scythians, merit Httle attention as matters of history ; but there are certain accordances in respect of names with the modern traditions amongst the inhabitants of Western Tartary that appear remarkable. See Rennell farther on this subject, p. 73. M. Rennell thinks he perceives in the Targitaus of Herodotus «ome affinity to the name Turk, the reputed son of Japhet, and the patiiarch of the Tribes of Turkestan and Tartary. A A 2 S5G MELPOMENE. sceiidecl who are termed the Auchatas ; from Arpoxais, the second brother, those who are called the Catiari and the Traspies ; from the youngest, who was king, came the Paralatse^ Generally speaking, these people are named Scoloti, from a surname of their king, but the Greeks call them Scythians. VII. This is the account which the Scythians give of their origin ; and they add, that from their first king Targitaus, to the invasion of their country by Darius, is a period of a thousand years, and no more, l^he sacred gold is preserved by their kings with the greatest care ; and every year there are solemn sacrifices, at which the prince assists. They have a tradition, that if the person who has the custody of this gold, sleeps in the open air during the time' of their annual festival, he dies before the end of the year ; for this j^eason they give him as much land^ as he can pass over on horseback in the course of a day^. ^ Par(Uattr.~\ — This passage will be involved in much per- plexity, unless for tbc ftairtXriai, we read tov ftatriXrjoi-. — T. 8 They give him as much /and.] — This is, beyond doubt, a very perplexed and difficult passage ; and all that the different annotators have done, has been to intimate their conjectures. I have followed that which to my judgment seemed the happiest. — T. •J On horseback in the course of a (lai/.~\ — Larcher adduces, from Pliny, Ovid, and Seneca, the three following passages, to prove that anciently this was the mode of rewarding merit. Dona MELPOMENE. 357 As this region is extensive, king Colaxais divided tlie country into three parts, which he gave to three sons, making that portion the largest in which the gold was deposited. As to the district which lies farther to the north, and beyond the extreme inhabitants of the country, they say that it neither can be passed, nor yet discerned with the eye, on account of the feathers'' which are continually falling : with these both the earth and the air are so filled, as effectually to obstruct the view. VIII. Such is the manner in which the Scy- thians describe themselves and the country be- yond them. The Greeks who inhabit Pontus speak of both as follows : Hercules, v.hen he Dona amplissima imperatorum et fortium civium quantum quis uno die plurinium circumaravisset. — Pliny. This from Ovid is more pertinent : At proceres Ruris honorati tantum tibi Cipe dedere Quantum depresso subjectis bobus aratro Complecti posses ad iinem solis ab ortu. — See also Seneca : — lUi ob virtutem et bene gestam rempublicam tantum agri decerneretur, quantum arando uno die circuire potuisset. 10 On account of the feathers.] — It must immediately occur to the reader that these feathers can be nothing but snow ; and so Herodotus himself explains it. See c. 31. I r 358 M E L r O M E N E. was driving away the heifers of Geryon", came to this region, now inhabited by the Scythians, but which then was a desert. This Geryon lived beyond Pontus, in an island which the Greeks call Erythia, near Gadcs, which is situate in the ocean, and beyond the Columns of Hercules. The ocean, they say, commencing at the east, flows round all the earth ^'; this, however, they 11 Geryon.'l — To this personage the poets assigned three heads and three bodies. Hesiod calls him rpitcefaXop, and Euripides, rpicrufiaroy. See also Horace : — Qui ter amplum Geryonem, Tityonique tristi Compescit unda. — Virgil calls him Tergeminus : but the minutest description is found in Silius Italicus; the most satisfactory, in Palae- phatus de incredibilibus : — Qualis Atlantiaco memoratur litore quondam Monstrum Geryones immane tricorporis iras, Cui tres in pugna dextrae varia arma gerebant Una ignes seevos, ast altera pone sagittas Fundebat, validam torquebat tertia cornum, Atque uno di versa dabat tria vulnera nisu. — Punic. Bell. 13. 200. Palaephatus, says he, lived at Tricarenia ; and that, being called the Tricarenian Geryon, he was afterwards said to have had three heads. — T. ^^ Flo-ws round the earth.'\ — Upon this passage, the following •"remark occurs in Stillingfleet's Origin. Sacr. book i. c. 4. " It cannot be denied but a great deal of useful history may be fetched out of Herodotus; yet who can excuse his igno- rance, when he not only denies there is an ocean compassing the land, but condemns the geographers for asserting it?" This assertion of Stillingfleet is not true, for Herodotus neither denies the fact, nor condemns the geographers. MELPOMENE. 359 affirm without proving it. Hercules coming from thence, arrived at this country, now called Scythia, where, finding himself overtaken by a severe storm, and being exceedingly cold, he wrapped himself up in his lion's skin, and went to sleep. They add, that his mares, which he had detached from his chariot to feed, by some divine interposition disap- peared during his sleep. IX. As soon as he awoke, he wandered over all the country in search of his mares, till at length he came to the district which is called Hylaea : there in a cave he discovered a female of most unnatural appearance, resembling a wo- man as far as the thighs, but whose lower parts were like a serpent ^'\ Hercules beheld her with astonishment, but he was not deterred from ask- ing her whether she had seen his mares ? She made answer, that they were in her custody; she refused, however, to restore them, but upon condition of his cohabiting with her. The terms proposed, induced Hercules to consent; but she 13 Like a serpent.'] — M. Pelloutier calls ihJs monster a syren, but Homer represents the Syrens as very lovely women. Diodorus Siculus speaks also of this monster, describing it in terms like Herodotus. He makes her the mistress of Jupiter, by whom she had Scythes, who gave his name to the nation. — Lurcher. 360 M E L P O M E N E. still (Icfcrrcd restoring his mares, from tlic wish of retaining him longer with her, whilst Her- cules was equally anxious to oh tain them and depart. After a while she restored them with these words : " Your mares which wandered " here, I have preserved ; you have paid what " was due to my care, I have conceived hy you " three sons ; I wish you to say how T shall dis- " pose of them hereafter ; whether I shall detain " them here, where I am the sole sovereign, or " whether I shall send them to you." The reply of Hercules was to this effect : "As soon " as they shall he grown up to man s estate, " observe this, and you cannot err ; whichever " of them you shall see bend this bow, and wear " this belt ^* as I do, him detain in this country : " the others, who shall not be able to do this, " you may send away. By minding what I say, " you will have pleasure yourself, and will satisfy " my wishes." 14 This belt.^ — It was assigned to Hercules as one of his labours by Eurystheus, to whom he was subject, to deprive Ilippolyta, queen of the Amazons, of her belt. Ausonius, in the inscription which he probably wrote for some ancient rehevo, mentions it as the sixth labour ; Threiciam sexto spoliavit Amazona baltheo. This labour is also mentioned thus by Martial : Peltatam Scvthico discinxit Amazona nodo. Whether Herodotus means to speak of this belt, I pretend not to (Iftermine. — 7', MELPOMENE. 361 X. Having said this, Hercules took one of his bows, for thus far he had carried two, and shewing her also his belt, at the end of which a golden cup was suspended, he gave her them, and departed. As soon as the boys of whom she was delivered grew up, she called the eldest Agathyrsus, the second Gelonus, and the youngest Scytha. She remembered also the injunctions she had received ; and two of her sons, Agathyr- sus and Gelonus, who were incom.petent to the trial which was proposed, were sent away by their mother from this country. Scytha the youngest was successful in his exertions, and remained. From this Scytha, the son of Hercules, the Scy- thian monarchs are descended ; and from the golden cup the Scythians to this day have a cup at the end of their belts. XI. This is the story which the Greek inha- bitants of Pontus relate ; but there is also ano- ther, to which T am more inclined to assent: — The Scythian Nomades of Asia, having been ha- rassed by the jMassagetse in war, passed the Araxis, and settled in Cimmeria ; for it is to be observed, that the country now possessed by the Scythians, belonged formerly to the Cimmerians. This people, when attacked by the Scythians, de- liberated what it was most adviseable to do against the inroad of so vast a multitude. Their sentiments were divided; both were violent, but 362 M E L P O M E N E. that of the kings appears preferable. The people were of opinion, that it would be better not to hazard an engagement, but to retreat in security ; the kings were at all events for resisting the enemy. Neither party would recede from their opinions, the people and the princes mutually refusing to yield ; the people wished to retire before the invaders, the princes determined rather to die where they were, reflecting upon what they had enjoyed before, and alarmed by the fears of future calamities. From verbal dis- putes they soon came to actual engagement, and they happened to be nearly equal in number. All those who perished by the hands of their countrymen, were buried by the Cimmerians near the river Tyre, where their monuments may still be seen. The survivors fled from their country, which in its abandoned state was seized and occu- pied by the Scythians. XII. There are still to be found in Scythia walls* and bridges which are termed Cimme- * Respecting the walls still found in the time of Hero- dotus, under the name of Cimmerian, he does not say they were in the Peninsula, but the context implies it, and it is not improbable that he had seen them. Baron Tott saw, in the mountainous part of the Crimea, ancient castles and other buildings, a part of which were excavated from the live rock, together with subterraneous passages from one to MELPOMENE. 363 rian ; the same name is also given to a whole district, as well as to a narrow sea. It is certain that when the Cimmerians were expelled their country by the Scythians, they fled to the Asiatic Chersonese, where the Greek city of Sinope ^^ is at present situated. It is also apparent, that, whilst engaged in the pursuit, the Scythians de- viated from their proper course, and entered Media. The Cimmerians in their flight * kept the other. These were, he says, always on mountains dif- ficult of access. He refers them to the Genoese; with what justice we know not: it is possible they might have made use of them: but it is more than probable that these are the works alluded to by our author, for it may be remarked that works of this kind are commonly of very ancient date. See Rennell. 15 Sinope.] — There were various opinions amongst the an- cients concerning this city. Some said it was built by an Amazon so called ; others affirm it was founded by the Mi- lesians ; Strabo calls it the most illustrious city of Pontus. It is thus mentioned by Valerius Flaccus, an author not so much read as he deserves : Assyrios complexa sinus stat opima Sinope Nympha prius, blandosque Jovis quas luserat ignes Coelicolis immota procis. There was also a celebrated courtesan of this name, from whom Sinopissare became a proverb for being very lasci- vious. The modern name of the place is Sinub. — T. * Such migrations as these, observes Major Rennell, have frequently happened ; and we may quote, in particular, the famous migration of the Kalmucs in 1770, 1771, when they moved, or rather took flight from the west of the river 364 MELPOMENE. imiformly by the sea-coast; but the Scythians, having Mount Caucasus to their right, continued the pursuit, till by following an inland direction they entered IVIcdia. XIII. There is still another account, which has obtained credit both with the Greeks and barbarians. Aristeas "" the poet, a native of Proconnesus, and son of Caustrobius, relates, that under the influence of Apollo he came to the Issedones, that beyond this people he found the Arimaspi ", a nation who have but one eye ; Wolga to the Balchaler Lake, called also Palkata Nor, and Lake of the Kalmucs. The numbers were said to be from 55 to 60 thousand families, perhaps 350,000 persons. 16 Aristeas.] — This person is mentioned also by Pliny and Aulus Gellius ; it is probable that he lived in the time of Cyrus and Croesus. Longinus has preserved six of his verses ; see chap. 10; of which he remarks, that they are rather florid than sublime. Tzetzes has preserved six more. The ac- count given of him by Herodotus is far from satisfactory. ^^ Arimaspi.] — The Anmaspians were Hyperborean Cy- clopeans, and had temples named Charis or Charisia, in the top of which was preserved a perpetual fire. They were of the same family as those of Sicily, and had the same rites, and particularly worshipped the Ophite deity under the name of Opis. Aristeas Proconnesius wrote their history, and among other things mentioned that they had but one eye, which was placed in their graceful forehead. How could the front of a Cyclopean, one of tlie most hideous monsters that ever |)oetic fancy framed, be styled graceful r The whole is a mistake of terms, and what this writer l)ad M E L P O M E N E. 365 farther on were the Gryphiiis ^^ the guardians of the gold ; and beyond these the Hyperboreans '^, who possess the whole country quite to the sea, and that all these nations, except the Hyper- boreans, are continually engaged in war with their neighbours. Of these hostilities the Ari- maspians w^ere the first authors, for they drove out the Issedones, who did the same to the Scy- misapplied related to Charis a tower, axid the eye was a casement in the top of the edifice, where a hght and fire were kept up. — Bryant. With all due respect for Mr. Bryant, it does not seem that the Arimaspians could have much to do with fire-towers. They did not dwell on the sea-coast, between which and them, according to Herodotus, were two nations. 18 Gryphins^ — Thus the Gryphins, Those dumb and ravenous dogs of Jove, avoid The Arimaspian troops, whose frowning foreheads Glare with one blazing eye: along the banks Where Pluto rolls his streams of gold, they rein Their foaming steeds. Prometheus Vinctus ; Mschyl. Potters Translation. Pausanias tells us, that the Gryphins are represented by Aristeas as monsters resembling lions, with the beaks and wings of eagles. By the way, Dionysius of Halicarnassus is of opinion that no such poem as this of Aristeas ever ex- isted,— T. 13 Hyperboreans^ — The ancients do not appear to have had any precise ideas of the country of this people. The Hyperborean mountains are also frequently mentioned, which, as appears from Virgil, were the same as the Ryphean : Talis llyperboreo seplem siibjecta trioni Gens effraena virum Ripha^o tunditiir Euro Et pecudmn fulvis velatur corpora satis. T. 3G6 M E L P O M E N E. thians : the Scythians compelled the Cimmerians, who possessed the country towards the south, to abandon their native land. Thus it appears, that the narrative of Aristcas differs also from that of the Scythians. XIV. Of what country the relator of the above account was, we have already seen ; but I ought not to omit what I have heard of this personage, both at Proconnesus and Cyzicus ~'\ It is said of this Aristeas, that he was of one of the best families of his country, and that he died in the workshop of a fuller, into which he had acci- dentally gone. The fuller immediately secured his shop, and went to inform the relations of the deceased of what had happened. The report having circulated through the city, that Aristeas was dead, there came a man of Cyzicus, of the city of Artaces, who affirmed that this assertion was false, for that he had met Aristeas going to 20 Cyzicus.] — This was one of the most flourishing cities of Mysia, situate in a small island of the Propontis, and built by the Milesians. It is thus mentioned by Ovid : Inde Propontiacis hserentem Cyzicon oris Cyzicon vEmoniae nobile gentis opus. The people of this place were remarkable for their effe- minacy and cowardice ; whence tinctura Cyzicena became proverbial for any dastardly ciiaracter. It has now become a peninsula, by the filling up of the small channel by which it was divided from the continent. — T. MELPOMENE. 367 Cyzicus'S and had spoken with him. In con- sequence of his positive assertions, the friends of Aristeas hastened to the fuller's shop with every thing which was necessary for his funeral, hut when they came there, no Aristeas was to be found, alive or dead. Seven years afterwards it is said that he re-appeared at Proconnesus, and composed those verses which the Greeks call Arimaspian ; after which, he vanished a second time. XV. This is the manner in which these cities speak of Aristeas : but I am about to relate a circumstance which to my own knowledge hap- pened to the Metapontines of Italy, three hun- dred and forty years after Aristeas had a second time disappeared, according to my conjecture, as it asrrees with what I heard at Proconnesus and Metapontus. The inhabitants of this latter place affirm, that Aristeas, having appeared in their city, directed them to construct an altar to Apollo, and near it a statue to Aristeas of Pro- ^1 Goi7ig to Ci/zicus.'] — Upon this story Larcher remarks, that there are innumerable others hke it, both among the ancients and moderns. A very ridiculous one is related by Plutarch, in his Life of Romulus: — A man named Cleomedes, seeing himself pursued, jumped into a great chest, which closed upon him : after many ineffectual attempts to open it, they broke it in pieces, but no Cleomedes was to be found, alive or dead. — T. 368 MELPOMENE. connesus. He told them that they were the only people of Italy whom Apollo had ever ho- noured hy his presence, and that he himself had attended the god under the form of a crow": having said this, he disappeared. The Metapon- tines relate, that in consequence of this they sent to Delphi, to inquire what that unnatural ap- pearance might mean ; the Pythian told them in reply, to perform what had been directed, for that they would find their obedience rewarded ; they obeyed accordingly, and there now stands near the statue of Apollo himself, another bear- ing the name of Aristeas : it is placed in the public square of the city, surrounded with laurels. XVI. Thus much of Aristeas. — No certain knowledge is to be obtained of the places which lie remotely beyond the country of which I before spake: on this subject I could not meet with 22 Under the form of a crow.~\ — Pliny relates this some- what dirt'erently. He says, it was the soul of Aristeas, which having left his body, appeared in the form of a crow. His words are these : Aristeae etiam visam evolantem ex ore in Proconneso, corvi efTigie magna quas sequitur fabulositate. — Lurcher. The crow was sacred to A])o]l(), is appears from ^lian do Animalibus, hook vii. 18. We learn also from Scaliger, in his Notes on IManilius, that a crow sitting on a tripod was found on some ancient coins, to which Statins also alludes in the following line ; Non comes obscuriis tripoduin. T. IV: I E L P O M E N E. 36 any person able to speak from his own know- ledge. Aristcas above-mentioned confesses, in the poem which he wrote, that he did not pene- trate beyond the Issedones; and that what he related of the conntries more remote, he learned of the Issedones themselves. For my own part, all the intelligence which the most assidnous re- searches, and the greatest attention to authen- ticity, have been able to procnre, shall be faith- fully related. XVII. As we advance from the port of the Borysthenites, which is unquestionably the centre of all tlie maritime parts of Scythia, the first people who are met with are the Callipidae *^, who are Greek Scythians : beyond these is an- other nation, called the Halizones '\ These two people in general observe the customs of the Scythians, except that for food they sow corn, onions, garlick, lentils, and millet. Beyond the Plalizones dwell some Scythian husbandmen, who V>w corn not to eat, but for sale. Still more remote are the Neuri "", whose country towards 23 CallipidcE.'] — Solinus calls these people Callipodes. — T. ~* HalizotiesJ] — So called, because surrounded on all sides by the sea, as the word itself oI)viously testifies. — T. •^ Neuri.'] — Mela, book ii. 1, says of this people, that they had the power of transforming themselves into wolves, and resuming their former shape at pleasure. — Neuris statum singulis tempus est, quo si velint in lupos, iterumque in ens qui fuere mutentur. — T. Vol. II. B B . 370 M E L P O M E N E. the north, as far as I have been able to learn, is totally uninhabited. All these nations dwell near the river Hypanis, to the west of the Borysthcnes. XVIII. Having crossed the Borysthenes, the first country towards the sea is Hylaea, conti- guous to which are some Scythian husbandmen, who call tliemselvcs Olbiopolitrc, but who, by the Greeks living near the Hypanis, are called Bo- rysthenites '^\ The country possessed by these Scythians towards the east, is the space of a three days journey, as far as the river Panticapes ; to the north, their lands extend to the amount of an eleven days voyage along the Borysthenes. The space beyond this, is a vast inhospitable desert ; and remoter still are the Androphagi, or men- eaters, a separate nation, and by no means Scy- thian. As we pass farther from these, the coun- try is altogether desert, not containing, to our knowledge, any inhabitants. XIX. To the east of these Scythians, who t irt ^w MvpiiTov, po^dic ci k-pdra JlvKctaoi'. Thus rendered by Cowley : ^Vhy do we precious ointments show'r, Moblc wines why do we pour, M E L P O M E N E. 377 tlicy venerate the principles of justice; and that their females enjoy equal authority* with the men. XXVII. The Issedones themselves affirm, that the country beyond them is inhabited by a race of men who have but one eye, and by Gryphins who are guardians of the gold. — Such is the in- formation which the Scythians have from the Issedones, and we from the Scythians ; in the Scythian tongue they are called Arimaspians, from Arima, the Scythian word for one, and spu, an eye. Beauteous flowers why do we spread Upon the mon'ments of the dead? Nothing they but dust can shew, Or bones that hasten to be so ; Crown me with roses whilst I live. See also the much-admired apostrophe addressed by V^irgil to the memory of Marcellus : lieu miserande puer, si qua fata aspera rumpas, Tu Marcellus eris : manibus date lilia plenis, Purpureos spargam flores, animamque nepotis His saltern accumulem donis. T. * Rennell remarks, that this evinced a degree of retine- ment far above the standard of Scythian nations. But as we learn, he continues, that the Ocgurs were a lettered nation, and that they alone furnished the conqueror Jenghis Kan with secretaries, we are the less surprized at the refinements of their ancestors. The physical geography of their country is such, being one of the most elevated tracts in the centre of Asia, as is likely to preserve national manners throug4i a long course of ages. P. 1 47- 378 ]\I E L r O M E N E. XXVIII. Through all the region of which we have been speaking, the winter season, which con- tinues for eight months, is intolerably severe and cold. At this time, if water be poured upon the ground, unless it be near a fire, it will not make clay. The sea itself", and all the Cimmerian Bosphorus, is congealed ; and the Scythians who live within the trench before mentioned make hostile incursions upon the ice, and penetrate with their waggons as far as Sindica*. During eight months the climate is thus severe, and the remaining four are sufficiently cold. In this re- gion the winter is by no means the same as in 31 The sea itself.] — The Ci reeks, who had no knowledge of this country, were of opinion that the sea could not be con- gealed; they consequently considered this passage of Hero- dotus as fabulous. The moderns, who are better acquainted with the regions of the north, well know that Herodotus was right. — Larchtr. Upon this subject, the following whimsical passage occurs in Macrobius. — Nam quod Herodotus historiarum scriptor, contra omnium ferrne qui hjEC qua;siverunt, opinionem scrip- sit, mare Bosporicum, quod et Cimmeriimi appellat, earum- que partium mare omne quod Scythicum dicitur, id gelu constringi et consistere, aliter est quam putatur ; nam non marina aqua contrahitur, sed quia plurimum in illis regi- onibus fluviorum est, et paludum in ipsa maria inlluentium, superficies maris cui diilces aqua? innatant, congelascit, et incolumi aqua marina videtur in mari gelu, sed de advenis undis coactum, iSlC. * This region is opposite to the Cimmerian Bosphorus. See chap. 86', where Sindica is placed opposite to the river Thermodon. MELPOMENE. 379 other climates ; for at this time, when it rains abundantly elsewhere, it here scarcely rains at all, whilst in the summer the rains are incessant. At the season when thunder is common in other places, here it is never heard, but during the summer it is very heavy. If it be ever known to thunder in the winter, it is considered as omi- nous. If earthquakes happen in Scythia, in either season of the year, it is thought a prodigy. Their horses are able to bear the extremest severity of the climate, which the asses and mules frequently cannot^"; though in other regions the cold which destroys the former has little effect upon the latter. XXIX. This circumstance of their climate seems to explain the reason why their cattle are 32 Asses and mules frequently cannot.] — This assertion of Herodotus is confii-med by Pliny, who says, " Ipsum animal (asinus) frigoris maxime impatiens : ideo non generatur in Ponto, nee tequinoctis verno, at ca;tera pecua admittitur sed solstitio." The ass is a native of Arabia; the warmer the climate in which they are produced, the larger and the better they are. " Their size and their spirit," says Mr. Pennant, " regularly decline as they advance into colder regions." HoUingshed says, that in his time "our 'lande did yeelde no asses." At present they appear to be naturalized in our country; and M. Larcher's observation, that they are not common in England, must have arisen from misinformation. That the English breed of asses is comparatively less beautiful, must be acknowledged. — T. 380 M E I. r () M E N E. Avithoiit liorns^'; and Homer in the Odyssey has a Hne ^vhich confirms my opinion : — " And Libya, Avhcrc the sheep have always liorns'*;" which is as mucli as to say, that in warm climates horns will readily grow ; but in places wliich arc ex- tremely cold they either will not grow at all, or are always diminutive. XXX. The peculiarities of Scythia are thus explained from the coldness of the climate ; but as I have accustomed myself from the com- mencement of this history to deviate occasionally from my subject, I cannot here avoid expressing my surprize, that the district of Elis never pro- duces mules ; yet the air is by no means cold, nor can any other satisfactory reason be assigned. The inhabitants themselves believe that their not possessing mules is the effect of some curse'". ^^ IVithont horns.'] — Hippocrates, speaking of the Scytliian chariots, says, they are drawn by oxen which liave no horns, and tliat the cold prevents their having any. — Lurcher. 3^ Aluai/s horns.] — The line here quoted from Ih)mer is tiiiis rendered by Pope : And two fair crescents of translucent liorn The brows of all their young increase adorn. — T. 33 Of some curse] — The following passage is found in Plutarch's Greek questions. Q. Why do the men of Elis lead their mares beyond their borders, when they would have them covered ? J. \Vas MELPOMENE. - 881 AVhen their marcs require the male, the Eleans take them out of the limits of their own terri- A. Was it because ^nomaus, being remarkable for his great love of horses, imprecated many horrid curses upon mares that should be (thus) covered in Elis, and that the people, in terror of his curses, will not sutler it to be done within their district ? It is indisputably evident, that something is omitted or corrupted in this passage of Plutarch. As it stands at pre- sent, it appears that the mares were to be covered by horses, and so the translators have rendered it ; but the love of -^nomaus for horses, would hardly lead him to so absurd an inconsistency as that of cursing the breed of them within his kingdom. The truth is, it was the breed of mules which he loaded with imprecations ; and it was only when the mares were to be covered by asses, that it was necessary to remove them, to avoid falling under his curse. Some word express- ing this, ought therefore to be found in Plutarch, and the suspicion of corruption naturally falls at once on the unin- telligible word iyoSat:, which is totally omitted in the Latin version, and given up by Xylander as inexplicable ; Wesseling would change it to tvQopovQ, but that does not remove the fault: if we read ovo^oKovq all will be easy. The question will then stand thus : " Why do the men of Elis lead those mares which arc to receive asses, beyond their borders to be co- vered?"- And we must render afterwards, ''that should be thus covered," instead of covered only : ovocokoq being a com- pound formed at pleasure, according to the genius of the Greek language, but not in common use, might easily be corrupted by a careless or ignorant transcriber. I should not have dwelt so long on a verbal criticism of this kind, had not the emendation appeared important, and calculated to throw additional light on this passage of Herodotus. Conformable to this, is the account of Pausanias : — " In Elis," says he, " mares will not produce from asses, though 382 M E I. P O M E N E. tories, and there suffer asses to cover them ; when they have conceived they return. XXXT. Concerning those feathers, which, as the Scythians say, so cloud the atmosphere that they cannot penetrate nor even discern what lies beyond them, my opinion is this: — In those re- moter regions there is a perpetual fall of snow, which, as may be supposed, is less in summer than in winter. Whoever observes snow falling continually, will easily conceive what I say; for it has a great resemblance to feathers. These regions, therefore, which are thus situated re- motely to the north, are uninhabitable from the unremitting severity of the climate ; and the Scythians, with the neighbouring nations, mis- take the snow for feathers ^^. — But on this subject I have said quite enough. they will in the places contiguous : this the people impute to some curse." Book v. j). 384. And Eustathius has a similar remark in his Comment on Dionysius, 1. 409- Upon the above, Larcher remarks, that this doubtless was the reason why the race of chariots drawn by mules was abolished at the Olympic games, which had been introduced there in the seventieth Olympiad by Thersias of Thessaly. —T. 36 Snow for feathers.'] — The comparison of falling snow to fleeces of wool, as being very obvious and natural, is found in abundance of writers, ancient and modern. See Psalm cxlvii. ver. 5. — Who sendeth his snow like wool. Martial MELPOMENE. 383 XXXII. Of the Hyperboreans'^ neither the Scythians nor any of the neiglibouring people, the Issedones alone excepted, have any knowledge ; and indeed what they say merits but little atten- tion. The Scythians speak of these as they do of the Arimaspians. It must be confessed that Hesiod mentions these Hyperboreans, as Homer also does in the Epigonoi^^, if he was really the author of those verses. XXXIII. On this subject of the Hyperbo- Martial beautifully calls snow, densuni tacitarum vellus aquarum. Ill whose capacious womb A vapoury deluge lies to snow congeal'd ; Heavy they roll their fleecy world along. — Thomson. ■■'T Hyperboreans.^ — It appears from the Scholiast on Pin- dar, that the Greeks called the Thracians, Boreans ; there is therefore great probability that they called the people be- yond these the Hyperboreans. — Larcher. — Doubtless, the inha- bitants of Russia and part of Siberia. The Hyperboreans of the Romans corresponded with the Gog and Magog of the Arabians. 38 Epigo?wi.] — That Homer was the author of various poems besides the Iliad and the Odyssey, there seems little reason to doubt; that he was the author of these in question can hardly be made appear. The Scholiast of Aristophanes assigns them to Antimachus ; but Antimachus of Colophon was later than Herodotus, or at least his cotemporary. The subject of these verses were, the supposed authors of the second Theban war. At the time in which Homer flourished, the wars of Thebes and of Troy were the subjects of uni- versal curiosity and attention. — T. 384 MELPOMENE. rcaiis, the Deliaiis arc moi'c communicative. Tlicy affirm, that some sacred offerings of tliis people, carefully folded in straw, were given to the Scythians, from whom descending regularly through every contiguous nation ", they arrived at leno-th at the Adriatic. From hence, trans- ported towards the south, they were first of all received hy the Dodoneans of Greece ; from them again they were transmitted to the gulph of jNIelis ; whence passing into Euhoca, they were sent from one town to another, till they arrived at Carystus ; not stopping at Andros, the Ca- rystians carried them to Tenos, the Tenians to Delos ; at which place the Delians affirm they came as we have related. They farther observe, that to bring these offerings the Hyperboreans'*^^ ^9 Through every contiguous nafion.] — On this subject the Athenians have another tradition. — Sec Pausanias, c. xxxi. p. 77. According to them, these offerings were given by the Hyperboreans to the Ariniaspians, by the Arimaspians to the Scythians, by the Scythians carried to Sinopi-. The Greeks from thence passed them from one to another, till they arrived at Prasis, a place dependant on Athens; the Athenians ultimately sent them to Delos. " This," says M. Larch er, "seems to me a less probable account than that of the Delians." 40 llj/perhorcans.] — Upon the subject of the Hyperboreans, our learned mythologist IMr. Bryant has a very curious chapter. The reader will do well to consult the whole ; but the following extract is particularly applicable to the chapter before u.s. Of MELPOMENE. 385 sent two yoimg women, whose names were Hy- peroche and Laodice : five of their countrymen accompanied them as a guard, who are held in great veneration at Delos, and called the Peri- pheres*'. As these men never returned, the Hyperboreans were greatly offended, and took the following method to prevent a repetition of this evil : — They carried to their frontiers their Of all other people the Hyperboreans seem most to have respected the people of Delos. To this island they used to send continually mystic presents, which were greatly re- verenced : in consequence of tliis, the Delians knew more of their histoiy than any other community of Greece. Calli- machus, in his hymn to Delos, takes notice both of the Hyperboreans and their offerings. This people were esteemed very sacred; and it is said that Apollo, when exiled from heaven, and when he had seen his offspring slain, retired to their country. It seems he wept; and there was a tradition that every tear was amber. See Apollonius Rhodius, bookiv. 6ll. The Celtic sages a tradition hold, That every drop of amber was a tear Shed by Apollo, when he fled from heaven ; For sorely did he weep, and sorrowing pass'd Through many a doleful region, till he reach'd The sacred Hyperboreans. See Bryant, vol. iii. 491. 41 Periphcres.'] — Those whom the difierent states of Greece sent to consult Apollo, or to offer him sacrifice in the name of their country, they called Theoroi. They gave the name of Deliastoi to those whom they sent to Delos ; and of Py thastoi to those who went to Delphi. — Lan/ier. Vol. H. Cc 886 M E I. P O U E N E. offerings, folded in barley -straw*, and com- niitting tbem to the care of their neighbours, directed them to forward them progressively, till, as is reported, they thus arrived at Delos. This singularity observed by the Hyperboreans is prac- tised, as I myself have seen, amongst the women of Thrace and Paionia, v,'ho in their sacrifices to the regal Diana make use of barley-straw. XXXIV. In honour of the Hyperborean vir- gins who died at Delos, the Delian youth of both sexes celebrate certain rites, in which they cut off their hair ^" ; this ceremony is observed by virgins previous to their marriage, who, having * Pliny mentions this circumstance, and seems to intimate tliat the Hyperboreans suspected that these individuals were not fairly dealt with. Pliny says these offerings were composed of the first fruits of their corn. '^^ Cut off their hair.] — The custom of offering the hair to the gods is of very great antiquity. Sometimes it was de- posited in the temples, as in the case of Berenice, who con- secrated hers in the temple of Venus ; sometimes it was suspended upon trees. — Larc/ier. When the hair was cut off in honour of the dead, it was done in a circular form. Allusion is made to this ceremony in the Electra of Sophocles, line 52. See also Ovid ; Scissaj cum veste capillos. This custom, by the way, was strictly forbidden by the Jews. Pope has a very ludicrous allusion to it:— When fortune or a mistress frowns, Some plunge in business, others shave their crowns. — T. MELPOMENE. 387 deprived themselves of their hair, wind it round a spindle, and place it on the tomb. This stands in the vestibule of the temple of Diana, on the left side of the entrance, and is shaded by an olive, which grows there naturally. The young men of Delos wind some of their hair round a certain herb, and place it on the tomb. — Such are the honours which the Delians pay to these virgins. XXXV. The Delians add, that in the same age, and before the arrival of Hyperoche and Laodice at Delos, two other Hyperborean virgins came there, whose names were Argis and Opis *^ ; their object was to bring an offering to Lucina, in acknowledgment of the happy delivery of their females ; but that Argis and Opis were accom- panied by the deities themselves. They arc. *'^ Opis."} — Orion, who was beloved by Aurora, and whom Pherecydes asserts to have been the son of Neptune and Euryale, or, according to other authors, of Terra, endea- vouring to offer violence to Opis, was slain with an arrow by Diana. The first Hyperboreans who carried offerings to Delos were, according to Callimachus, named Oupis, Loxo, and Hecaerge, daughter of Boreas. — Larcher. Opis is thus mentioned by Virgil : Opis ad jEtherium pennis aufertur Olympum. According to Servius, Opis, Loxo, and Hecaerge, were synonymous terms for the moon. Opis was also the name of a city on the Tigris. — T. c c 2 388 MELT 0 M E N E. therefore, honoured with other solemn rites. The women assemble together, and in a hymn composed for the occasion by Olen of Lycia^\ they call on the names of Argis and Opis. In- structed by these, the islanders and lonians hold similar assemblies, introducing the same two names in their hymns. This Olen was a native of I^ycia, who composed other ancient hymns in use at Delos. A\nicn the thighs of the victims are consumed on the altar, the ashes are col- lected and scattered over the tomb of Opis and 44 Olci of Lycia.'\ — Olen, a priest and very ancient poet, was before Homer; he was the first Greek poet, and the lirst also who declared the oracles of Apollo. The inha- bitants of Delphi chanted the hymns which he composed for them. In one of his hymns he called Ihthya the mother of Love ; in another he affirmed that Juno was educated by the Hours, and was the mother of Mars and Hebe. — Larcher. The word Olen was properly an Egyptian sacred term, and expressed Olen, Olenus, Aihnus, and Linus, but is of unknown meaning. We read of Olenium sidus, Olenia capella, and the like. Nascitur Oleniaj sidus pluviale capellx. — Oiid. A sacred stone in Elis was called Petra Olenia. If then this Olen, styled an Hyperborean, came from Lycia and ^gypt, it makes me persuaded of what I have often sus- pected, that the term Hyperborean is not of that purj)ort which the Grecians have assigned to it. There were people of this family from the north, and the name has been dis- torted, and adapted solely to people of those parts. But there were Hyperboreans from the east, as we find in the history of Olen. — See Bryant further on this subject, vol. iii. 492, J. MELPOMENE. 389 Argis. This tomb is behiiul the temple of Diana, facing the cast, and near the phice where the Ceians celebrate their festivals. XXXVI. Concerning these Hyperboreans we have spoken sufficiently at large, for the story of Abaris^^ who was said to be an Hyperborean, and to have made a circuit of the earth with- out food, and carried on an arrow ^^, merits no attention. As there are Hyperboreans, or in- habitants of the extreme parts of the north, one would suppose there ought also to be Hyper- notians, or inhabitants of the corresponding parts of the south. For my own part, I cannot but think it exceedingly ridiculous to hear some men talk of the circumference of the earth, pre- *^ AbarisJ] — Jamblicus says of this Abaris, that he was the disciple of Pythagoras ; some say he was older than Solon; he foretold earthquakes, plagues, &c. Authors differ much as to the time of his coming into Greece : Ilarpociation says it was in the time of Croesus. — T. ■^^ On an arroiv.'] — There is a fragment preserved in the Anecdota Graeca, a translation of which Larcher gives in his notes, which throws much light upon this singular passage ; it is this: a famine having made its appearance amongst the Hyperboreans, Abaris went to Greece, and entered into the service of Apollo. The deity taught him to declare oracles. In consequence of this, he travelled through Greece, de- claring oracles, having in his hand an arrow, the symbol of Apollo. — An acute friend has suggested to me that this must be an allusion to the introduction of the letters of the alphabet. It is certain that Herodotus did not understand it. S90 MELPOMENE. tending, Avithoiit the smallest reason or probability, that the ocean encompasses the earth * ; that the earth is round, as if mechanically formed so ; and that Asia is equal to Europe. I will, therefore, concisely describe the figure and the size of each of these portions of the earth. XXXVII. The region occupied by the Per- sians extends southward to the lied Sea ; beyond, these to the north are the Medes, next to them are the Sapiriansf. Contiguous to the Sapi- rians, and where the Phasis empties itself into the Northern Sea, are the Colchians. These four nations occupy the space between the two seas. XXXVIII. From hence to the west, two tracts of land, stretch themselves towards the sea, which I shall describe : The one on the north side com- mences at the Phasis, and extends to the sea along the Euxine and the Hellespont, as far as the Sigeum of Troy. On the south side it begins at the bay of JNIargandius ^, contiguous to Phoe- nicia, and is continued to the sea as far as the * We might be induced to conclude, from this incidental sneer of Herodotus, tliat there were some excellent astrono- mers and geographers in his time, although, like Copernicus and others, they did not obtain much credit among their cotemporaries. t These are elsewhere called Saperians. X The Gulph of Issus. Tiie Mariandini are on the coast of the Euxine. MELPOMENE. 391 Triopiaii promontory ; this space of country is inhabited by thirty different nations. XXXIX. The other district commences in Persia, and is continued to the Red Sea '^ Be- sides Persia, it comprehends Assyria and Arabia, naturally terminating in the Arabian Gulph, into which Darius introduced *^ a channel of the Nile. The interval from Persia to Phoenicia is very extensive. From Phoenicia it again continues beyond Syria of Palestine, as far as ^gypt, where *7 The Red 5ea.]— It is necessary to be observed, that not only the Arabian Gulph was known by this name, but also the Persian Gulph and the Southern Ocean, that is to say, that vast tract of sea which lies between the two gulphs. — harcher. What Herodotus calls the Erythrean Sea, must be under- stood to be that between Ethiopia and India, generally. This includes the Arabian Gulph, but which he particularly distinguishes by that name in several places, as also the sea into which the Euphrates and Tigris discharge themselves, but which Herodotus conceived to be an open sea, and not a gulph. Both Herodotus and Agathemenus industriously distin- guish the Erythrean Sea from the Arabian Gulph, though the latter was certainly so called, and had the name of Erythrean. The Parthic empire, which included Persia, is by Pliny said to be bounded to the south by the Mare Rubrum, which was the boundary also of the Persians : by Mare Rubrum he here means the great southern sea. — Bryajit. ^^ Darius introduced. } — See book the second, chap. 158. 392 :M E L r O U E N E. it terminates. The wliole of tliis region is occu- pied by three nations only. — Such is the division of Asia from Persia westward. XL. To the east beyond Persia, INIedia, the Sapirians and Colchians, the country is bounded by the Red Sea ; to the north by the Caspian and the river Araxes, which directs its course towards the east. As far as India, Asia is well inhabited; but from India eastward the whole country is one vast desert, unknown and unex- plored. XLI. The second tract comprehends Libya, which begins where iEgypt ends. About iEgypt the country is very narrow. One hundred thou- sand orgyiae, or one thousand stadia, compre- hend the space between this and the lied Sea *^. Here the country expands, and takes the name of Libya. XLII. I am much surprised at those who *^ Tills and the Red 6Vtf.] — Here we must necessarily un- derstand the isthmus between the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulph or Red Sea. Herodotus says, book ii. chap. 158, that the shortest way betwixt one sea and the other was one thousand stadia. Agrippa says, on the au- thority of Pliny, that from Pelusium to Arsinoe on the Red Sea was one hundred and twenty-five miles, which comes to the same thing, that author always i^cckonini!; right stadia lo a mile. — Laielirr. M E L r O I\l E N E. 393 have divided and defined tlie limits of Libya, Asia, and Europe, betwixt which the difference is far from small. Europe, for instance, in length much exceeds the other two, but is of far inferior breadth : except in that particular part which is contiguous to Asia, the whole of Libva is sur- rounded by the sea. The first person who has proved this, was, as far as we arc able to judge, Necho king of iEgypt. When he had desisted from his attempt to join by a canal the Nile with the Arabian Gulph, he dispatclied some ves- sels ■'^, under the conduct of Phoenicians, with directions to pass by the columns of Hercules, ^° Dispatched some xesselsr^ — This Necho is the same who in Scripture is called Pharaoh Necho. He made an attempt to join the Nile and the Red Sea, by drawing a canal from the one t© the other ; but after he had consumed an hundred and twenty thousand men in the work, he was forced to de- sist from it. But he had better success in another under- taking ; for having gotten some of the expertest Phoenician sailors into his service, he sent them out by the Red Sea, through the straits, of Babelmandel, to discover the coasts of Africa, who having sailed round it came home the third year through the straits of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea, which was a very extraordinary voyage to be made in those days, when the use of the loadstone was not known. This voyage was performed about two thousand one hundred years before Vasquez de Gama, a Portugueze, by discover- ing the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, found out the same way from hence to the Indies by which these Phoenicians came from thence. Since that, it hath been made the com- mon passage thither from all these western parts of the world, -r-ViidcdltX. 394 MELPOMENE. and after penetrating the Northern Ocean to return to iEgypt. These Phoenicians, taking their course from the Red Sea, entered into the Southern Ocean * : on the approach of autumn they landed in Libya, and planted some corn in the place where they happened to find themselves ; when this was ripe, and they had cut it down, they again departed. Having thus consumed two years, they in the third doubled the columns of Hercules, and returned to iEgypt. Their rela- tion may obtain attention from others, but to me it seems incredible ^\ for they affirmed, that * Meaning the Ocean that washes Africa on the East. The circumnavigators are said to have entered the Southern Ocean, when they quitted the Arabian Gulph. Dr. Vincent observes (see his Nearchus, p. 275, 6,) tliat it is very doubtful whether this voyage was performed by the Phoenicians; it requires more evidence, more particulars, and a clearer detail of facts, to enable us to form a judgment. See also the very learned Doctor's Periplus, p. 173, where he thus expresses himself : It must be confessed that the facts he gives us of this voyage, though few, are consistent. The shadow falling to the South, the delay of stopping to sow grain and reap a harvest, and the space of three years employed in the circumnaviga- tion, joined with the simplicity of the narrative, are all points so strong, and so convincing, that if they are insisted on by those who believe the possibility of ell'ecting the passage by the ancients, no arguments to the contrary, however founded upon a different opinion, can leave the mind without a doubt upon the question. ^^ To me it seems incredible.'] — Herodotus does not doubt that the Phoenicians made the circuit of Africa, and returned MELPOMENE. 395 having sailed round Libya, they had the sun on their right hand. — Thus was Libya for the first time known. XLIII. If the Carthaginian account may be credited, Sataspes, son of Teaspes, of the race of the Achaemenides, received a commission to cir- cumnavigate Libya, which he never executed : alarmed by the length of the voyage, and the solitary appearance of the country, he returned without accomplishing the task enjoined him by his mother. This man had committed violence on a virgin, daughter of Zopyrus, son of JNIegaby- zus, for which offence Xerxes had ordered him to be crucified; but the influence of his mother, who was sister to Darius, saved his life. She avowed, however, that it was her intention to inflict a still severer punishment u^ion him, by obliging him to sail round Libya, till he should arrive at the Arabian Gulph. To this Xerxes assented, and Sataspes accordingly departed for Jilgypt ; he here embarked with his crew, and to iEgypt by the straits of Gibraltar ; but he could not be- lieve that in the course of the voyage they had the sun on their right hand. This, however, must necessarily have been the case after the Phoenicians had passed the line; and this curious circumstance, which never could have been imagined in an age when astronomy was yet in its infancy, is an evi- dence to the truth of a voyage, which without this might have been doubled. — Lurcher. 396 . M E L P O IM E N E. proceeded to the columns of Hercules ; passing these, he doubled the promontory which is called Syloes*, keeping a southern course. Continuing his voyage for several months, in which he passed over an immense tract of sea, he saw no probable termination of his labours, and therefore sailed back to jE-gypt. Returning to the court of Xerxes, he amongst other things related, that in the most remote places he had visited he had seen a people of diminutive appearance, clothed in red garments^', who on the approach of his * Often written Soloeis. It appears, says Rennell, that the Soloeis of Ilanno, and of Scylax, and the Solis of Pliny, and of Ptolemy, must have been situated between the Capes Blanco and Geen on the coast of Morocco, in which quarter also the Soloeis of Hero- dotus, as being a part of the inhabited tract, must of necessity be situated. ^" Red garments.] — This passage has been indifferently ren- dered Phoenician garments, and red garments ; the original is tadtjn *^oiyii:t]i7]. — Larcher, dissenting from both these, trans- lates it " des habits de palmier : " his reasoning upon it does not appear quite satisfactory. " It seems very suspicious," says he, " that people so savage as these are described by Herodotus, should either have cloth or stuff, or if they had, should possess the means of dying it red." But in the first place, Herodotus does not call these a savage people; and, in the next, the narrative of Sataspes was intended to excite astonishment, by representing to Xerxes what to him at least seemed marvellous. That a race of uncivilized men should clothe themselves with skins, or garments made of the leaves or bark of trees, could not appear wonderful to a sub- ject of Xerxes, to whom many barbarous nations were per- MELPOMENE. 397 vessel to the shore, had deserted their habitations, and fled to the mountains. But he affirmed, that his people, satisfied with taking a supply of pro- ' visions, offered them no violence. He denied the possibility of his making the circuit of Libya, as his vessel was totally unable to proceed ^^. Xerxes gave no credit to his assertions*; and, as he had not fulfilled the terms imposed upon him, he was executed according to his former sentence. An eunuch belonging to this Sataspes, hearing of his master's death, fled with a great sum of money to Samos, but he was there robbed of his property fectly well known. His surprise would be much more power- fully excited, at seeing a race of men of whom they had no knowledge, habited like the members of a civilized society ; add to this, that granting them to be what they are not here represented, Barbarians, they might still have in their country some natural or prepared substances, communicative of different colours. I therefore accede to the interpretation of rubra utentes veste, which is given by Valla and Gronovius, and which the word '^oiviKtjaj will certainly justify. — T. ^' Unable to proceed.^ — This was, according to all appear- ances, the east wind which impeded the progress of the vessel, which constantly blows in that sea during a certain period. — Lurcher. — See the note of Wesseling. * This, says Major Rennell, reminds me of the fate of Sir Walter Raleigh. It is very possible, continues the Major, that Sataspes was discouraged from prosecuting his voyage by the adverse winds and currents that prevail on the coast of Sierra Leone, &c. from April to October, and which would be felt by those who left iEgypt or Carthage in the Spring, a more likely season to undertake an expedition of this sort than in winter, when the order of things is different. — p. 716". 808 MELPOMENE. by a native of the place, wliose name I know, bnt forbear to mention. XLIV. A very considerable part of Asia was jfirst -discovered by Darius. He was extremely desirous of ascertaining wliere the Indus meets the ocean, the only river but one in which croco- diles are found ; to effect this, he sent, among other men in whom he could confide, Scylax of Caryandia^. Departing from Caspatyrus in the Pactyian territories, they followed the eastern ^■* Scylax of Caiyaiidia.'] — About this time, Darius being desirous to enlarge bis dominions eastward, in order to the conquering of those countries, laid a design of first making a discovery of them : for which reason, having built a fleet of ships at Caspatyrus, a city on the river Indus, and as far upon it as the borders of Scythia, he gave the command of it to Scylax, a Grecian of Caryandia, a city in Caria, and one well skilled in maritime affairs, and sent him down the river to make the best discoveries he could, of all the parts which lay on the banks of it on either side ; ordering him for this end to sail down the current till he should arrive at the mouth of the river : and that then passing through it into the Southern Ocean, he should shape his course westward, and that way return home. Which orders he having exactly executed, he returned by the straits of Babelmandel and the Red Sea; and on the thirtieth month after his first setting out from Caspatyrus landed in ^gypt, at the same place from whence Necho king of iEgypt formerly sent out his Phoenicians to sail round the coasts of Africa, which it is most likely was the port where now the town of Suez stands, at the hither end of the said Red Sea. — Priileaux. There were three eminent persons of this place, and of this name: — The one flourished undtr Darius Ilystaspes, the second under Darius Nothus, the third lived in the time of M E L P O M E N E. 399 course of the river, till they came to the sea ; then sailing westward, they arrived, after a ^ oyage of thirty months, at the very point from whence, as I have before related, the iligyptian prince dispatched the Phoenicians to circumnavigate Libya. After this voyage, Darius subdued the Indians, and became master of that ocean : whence it appears that Asia in all its parts, ex- cept those more remotely to the east, entirely resembles Libya*. Polybius. This was also the name of a celebrated river in Cappadocia. — T. * See Vincent as before quoted, Nearchus, p. i?75. and Periplus, 178. From the last I extract what follows, as highly deserving attention. The name of Sataspes still lives in the same page of Hero- dotus, whom Xerxes put to death because he attempted the same circumnavigation in vain from the straits of Gades; and the following page celebrates Scylax of Caryandia, who passed from the Indus into the Gulph of Arabia, to the point from whence the Phoenicians had commenced their expedi- tion. I have as little faith in the voyage of Scylax as in that of the Phoenicians ; but it is unjust that Darius should suffer, the name of the inferior to survive, while Necho should totally suppress the fame of the superior. The great argu- ment against both is the total failure of all consequences whatsoever, the total want of all collateral evidence, and the total silence of all other historians, but those who have copied from Herodotus. This argument of the learned Dean seems to me conclu- sive : it is surely improbable that so great a discovery should neither be followed up, nor substantiated by other evidence, nor proclaimed by other writers. INlajor Rennell, however, thinks otherwise, and what he says, of course demands the highest respect. — See p. 718. 400 M 1<: L r () M E N E. XLV. It is certain that luuope lias not hitherto been carefully examined ; it is by no means de- termined whether to the cast and north it is li- mited by the ocean. In length it unquestionably exceeds the two other divisions of the earth ; but I am far from satisfied why to one continent three different names, tat en from women, have been assigned. To one of these divisions some have given as a boundary the ^Egyptian Nile, and the Colchian Phasis ; others the Tanais, the Cim- merian Bosphorus, and the Palus INIa^otis. The names of those who have thus distinguished the earth, or the first occasion of their different appellations, I have never been able to learn. I^ibya, is by many of the Greeks said to have been so named from Libya, a woman of the country ; and Asia from the wife of. Prome- theus. The Lydians contradict this, and affirm that Asia"''' was so called from Asias, a son of Cotys, and grandson of Manis, and not from tlie wife of Prometheus ; to confirm this, they ^^ j4^ia.} — In reading the poets of antiquity, it is necessary carefully to have in mind the distinction of this division of tlie earth into Asia Major and Minor. — When \^irgil says Postquam res Asia.% Priamique evertere gentenj Inimeritani visum superis, it is evident that he can only mean to speak of a small por- tion of what we now understand to be Asia; it may not be amiss to remember, that there was a large lake of this name near Mount Tmolus, which had its first syllable long. M E L r O M E N E. 401 adduce the name of a tribe at Sardis, called the Asian tribe. It has certainlv never been ascer- tained, whether Europe be surrounded by the ocean : it is a matter of equal uncertainty, whence or from whom it derives its name. We cannot willingly allow that it took its name from the Sy- rian Europa, though we know that, like the other two, it was formerly without any. We are well assured that Europa was an Asiatic, and that she never saw the region which the Greeks now call Europe ; she only went from Phoenicia to Crete, from Crete to Lycia. — I shall nov/ quit this sub- ject, upon which I have given the opinions ge- nerally received. XLVI. Except Scythia, the countries of the Euxiue, against which Darius undertook an ex- pedition, are of all others the most barbarous ; among the people who dwell within these limits, we have found no individual of superior learn- ing and accomplishments, but Anacharsis ^ the Longa canoros Dant per colla modos, sonat amnis ct Asia longe Pulsat paliis. By Asia palus, the poet probably meant the Luke of Grygaus, near Sardis, and beneath mount Tmolus. — T. ^^ Anacharsis.'] — Of Anacharsis the life is given at some length by Diogenes Laertius; his moral character was of such high estimation, tbat Cicero does not scruple to call him sobrius, continens, abstinens, et temperans. ile gave rise to the proverb, up, licable to men of extraordinary endowments, . Vol. II. D d 4.0:2 M E I. P 0 M E N E. Scythian. Even of the Scythian nation I cannot in general speak with extraordinary commendation ; they have, however, one ohscrvance, which for its wisdom excels every thing I have met with. The possibility of escape is cut off from those who attack them ; and if they are averse to he seen, tlieir places of retreat can never he discovered : for they have no towns nor fortified cities, their habitations they constantly carry along with them, their bows and arrows they manage on horseback, and they support themselves not by agriculture, but by their cattle ""^ ; their constant of Anacharsis inter Scythas : he flourished in the time of Solon. The idea of his superior wisdom and desire of learn- ing, has given rise to an excellent modern work by the Abbe Barthelemy, called the Voyage du jeune Anacharsis. 'With respect to what Herodotus here says concerning Anacharsis, he seemingly contradicts himself in chap. xciv. and xcv. of this book, vvhere he confesses his belief that Zamolxis, the supposed deity of the Scythians, was a man eminent for his virtue and his wisdom. Dicenus also was a wise and learned Scythian ; and one of the most beautiful and interesting of Lucian's works, is named from a celebrated Scythian physician, called Toxaris. It must be remembered, that subsequent to the Christian aera, many exalted and accomplished characters were produced from the Scythians or Goths. — T. *7 By their ciitilc.'] — " The skilful practitioners of the medical art," says I\Ir. Gibbon, " may determine, if they are able to determine, how far the temper of the human mind may be afl'ected by the use of animal or of vegetable food ; and whether the conmion association of carnivorous and cruel, deserves to be considered in any other light than that of an innocent, perhaps a salutary prejudice of humanity. MELPOMENE. 403 abode may be said to be in their waggons ^^ How can a people so circumstanced afford the means of victory, or even of attack ? Yet if it be true, that the sentiment of compassion is imper- ceptibly weakened by the sight and practice of domestic cruelty, we may observe that the horrid objects which are disguised by the arts of European refinement, are exhibited in their naked and most disgusting simplicity in the tent of a Tartarian shepherd. The ox or the sheep are slaughtered by the same hand fiom which they were accustomed to receive their daily food ; and the bleeding limbs are served, with very little preparation, at the table of their unfeeling murderer." — Mr. Gibbon afterward gives the reader the following curious quotation from the Emile of Rousseau : " II est certain que les grands mangeurs de viande sont en general cruels et feroces plus que les autres hommes. Cette observation est de touts les lieux, et de touts les terns : la barbarite Angloise est connue," &c. — I hope this reproach has long ceased to be applied to England by those who really know it, and that the dispositions of our countrymen may furnish a proof against the system, in favour of which they were thus adduced. As for Rousseau, he deserves to be lashed for his impudence: for it is very certain that the French have committed more cruelties within fifteen years, than all the flesh-eaters in the world ever committed in fifteen hundred. ^^ III their waggons.'] — See the advice of Prometheus to lo, in iEschylus : First then, from hence Turn to the orient sun, and pass the height Of these uncultur'd mountains : thence descend To where the wandering Scythians, train'd to bear The distant-wounding bow, on wheels aloft Roll on their wattled cottages. Potter. See also Gibbon's description of the habitation of more modern Scylhi ins. " The houses of the Tartars are no more D D 2 401 M E T- r O M E N E. XLA^II. Their particular mode of life may be imputed partly to the situatiou of their coun- try, and the advantage they derive from their rivers ; tlieir lands arc well watered, and well adapted for pasturage. The nmiiber of rivers is almost equal to the channels of the Nile ; the more celebrated of them, and those which arc navigable to the sea, I shall eniun crate ; they arc these : The Danube *, having five mouths, the than small lonts of an oval form, wliich allord a cold and dirty habitation for the promiscuous youth of both sexes. The palaces of the rich consist of wooden huls, of such a size that they may he conveniently fixed on laige waggons, and drawn by a team, perhaps of twenty or thirty oxen." The same circumstance respecting the Scythians, is thus men- tioned by Horace : Campestres melius Scytba?, Quorum plaustra vagas rite trahunl donios, A'ivunt, et rigidi Geta?, Immetata quibus jugera lil)eras I'ruges et Cercrem ferunt, Nee cullura placet longior annua. T. * Of these rivers the Danube is the most Western, the Tanais the most Eastern. The Tyies, or Tyras, answers in all respects to the Diheister. There were many rivers which bore the name of Hypanis, but liiis, as INIajor llennell, p, 5(), observes, answers to the Bog. The Borysthenes is the largest river next to the Danube. The i)ort of Cherson, established by Catherine of Russia, seems to answer to the situation of the Boryslhenila\ The, following three rivers, viz. the Panticapes, llypacyris, and (lerrhus, must have been of inferior note, nor have their siiualions been defined by modern geographers. 'I'he last river, the 'J'anais, is unquestionably the Don. Don, says M E L P O IM E N E. 405 Tyres, the Hypaiiis, the Borysthcncs, Panticapes, Hypacyris, Gerrhiis, and the Taiia'is. XLVIII. No river of which \\c liave any knowledge, is so vast as the Danuhe ; it is always of the same depth, experiencing no variation from smnmer or from winter. It is the first river of Scythia to the east, and it is the greatest of all, for it is swelled by the influx of many others : there are live which particularly contribute to increase its size ; one of these the Greeks call Pyrcton, the Scythians, Porata; the other four are the Tiaran- tus, Ararus*, Naparis, and the Ordessus. The first of these rivers is of immense size ; flowing toward the east, it mixes with the Danube : the second, the Tiarantus, is smaller, having an in- clination to the west : bctv/ixt tliese, the xlrarus, Naparis, and Ordessus, liave their course, and empty themselves into the Danube. These rivers have their rise in Scythia, and swell the waters of the Danube'''^. INJajor Rennell, seems to be a conuplioii of Taiia, the proper name of a city which stood on or near the site of Azoph. Tana and Tanais are obviously the same. * D'Anville recognises the Porata in the Piuth, the Ararus in the Sirct, the Naparis in the Proava, and the Ordessus in the Argis ; but the Tiarantus he has not made out. See Rennell, p. .9. 59 Waters of the Danube.'] — Mr. Bryant's observations on this river, are loo curious to be omitted. The river Dauubi^ .was properly the river of Noali^ ex- 40G M E 1. P O M E N E. XUX. Tlic Maris also, commencing among the Agatliyrsi, is emptied into the Danube, wlucli is likewise the case with the three great rivers. Atlas, Auras, and Tibisis ; these flow from the summits of Mount Haimus, and have the same termination. Into the same river are received the waters of the Athres, Noes, and Artancs, which flow through Thrace, and the country of the Thracian Crobyzi. The Cius, which, rising in Pasonia, near INIount Rhodope, divides IMount Ha3mus, is also poured into the Danube. The Angrus comes from Illyria, and with a northward course passes over the Tribalian plains, and mixes pressed Da-Nau, Da-Nauos, Da-Nauvas, Da-Naubus. He- rodotus plainly calls it the river of Noah, without the prefix ; but appropriates the name only to one branch, giving the name of Ister to the chief stream. It is mentioned by Valerius Flaccus : Quas Tanais, flavusque Lycus, Hypanisquc Noasque. This, some would alter to Novasque, but the true reading is ascertained from other passages where it occurs ; and particularly by this author, who mentions it in another place : Hyberna qui terga Nose, gelidumque securi liaurit, et in tota non audit Amazona ripa. INIost writers compound it with the particle Da, and express it Da-Nau, Da-Nauvis, Da-Naubis. Stephanus Byzantinus speaks of it both by the name of Danoubis, and Danousis, li-c. ; vol, ii. 339. The reader will find a very fine description of the Danube and its alluvions, in Polybius, book iv. chap. v. — It is obvious that Herodotus had never heard of the Ganges, the Burram- pooler, and oilier '^'real livers of India and China. M E L r O M E N E. 407 with the Bi-oiigus ; the Broiigus meets the Da- nube, which thus receives the waters of these two great rivers. The Carpis, moreover, which rises in the country beyond the Umbrici, and the Alpis, which flows towards the north, are both lost in tlie Danube. Commencing with the Celta?, wlio, ex- cept the Cynetse, are the most remote inhabitants in the west of Europe, this river passes directly through the center of Europe, and by a certain in- clination enters Scythia. L. By the union of these and of many other waters, the Danube becomes the greatest of all rivers ; but if one be compared with another, the preference must be given to the Nile, into which no stream nor fountain enters *. The reason why in the two opposite seasons of the year the Danube is uniformly the same f , seems to me to be this : in the winter it is at its full natural height, or perhaps somewhat more, at which season there is, in the regions through which it passes, abundance of snow, but very little rain ; but in * This assertion must be understood with some limitati,';n ; after the Nile actually enters ^gypt, it ceitainly is inoecised by no stream; but in its progress through Abyssinia, it is cer- tainly swelled by many rivers, some of which are of consider- able magnitude. — T. t The Danube, however, certainly varies in its bulk at difierent seasons, as is proved by INlarsigli. 108 M E L r () M E N E. the summer all this snow is dissolved, and emptied into the Danube, which together with frequent and heavy rains greatly augment it. But in pro- portion as the hotly of its waters is thus multiplied, are the exlialations of the summer sun. The result of this action and re-action on the Da- nube, is, that its waters are constantly of the same deptli. LI. Thus, of the rivers which flow through Scy- thia, the Danube is the first ; next to this, is the Tyres, which rising in the north from an immense marsh, divides Scythia from Neuris. At the mouth of this river, those Greeks live who are known by the name of the Tyritse. LII. The third is the Hypanis ; this comes from Scythia, rising from an immense lake, round which arc found wild white horses, and which is properly enough called tlic mother of the Hypanis'". This river, through a space of five days journey from its first rise, is small, and its waters are sweet, but from thence to the sea, which is a journey of four days more, it becomes 6<^ The Hypanis.'] — Tliere were three rivers of this name : — One in Scythia, one in the Cimn.erian Ijosphoriis, and a third in India, the largest of that region, and the limits of the conquests of ^Vlexander the Great. This hist was s(;melimes called the Hypasis. — T. M E L P O M E N E. 409 exceedingly bitter. This is occasioned by a small fountain, which it receives in its passage, and which is of so very bitter a quality ''^ that it in- fects this river, though by no means contemptible in point of size : this fountain rises in the coun- try of the ploughing Scythians*, and of the Alazones. It takes the name of the place where it springs, which in the Scythian tongue is Ex- ampseus, corresponding in Greek to the " Sacred Ways.'' In the district of the Alazones, the streams of the Tyres and the Hypanis have an inclination towards each other, but they soon separate again to a considerable distance. LIII. The fourth river, and the largest next to the Danube, is tlic Borysthenes "". In my opinion this river is more fertile, not only than all the rivers of Scythia, but than every other 61 Bitter a qaaliti/.] — This circumstance respecting the Hypanis, is thus mentioned by Ovid : Quid uon et Scythicis Hypanis a montibus ortus Qui fuerat dulcis salibus vitiatur amaris. It is mentioned also by Pomponius iNJela, book ii. c. 1. — T. * Herodotus distinguishes the I.Kvdai dpoTtfpec, from the ^Kvdai ytd'pyoi. fi2 Borysthenes.'] — The emperor Hadrian had a famous horse, lo which he gave this name ; when the horse died, his master, not satisfied with erecting a superb monument to his memory, inscribed to him some elegant verses, which arc still in being. — T. 410 M E L r O M E N E. in tlic world, except the ^Egyptian Nile. The Nile, it must be confessed, disdains all compa- rison ; the Borysthenes nevertheless affords most agreeable and excellent pasturage, and contains great abundance of the more delicate fish. Al- though it flows in the midst of many turbid rivers, its waters arc perfectly clear and sweet ; its banks arc adorned by the richest harvests, and in those places where corn is not sown, the grass grows to a surprising height ; at its mouth a large mass of salt is formed of itself. It produces also a spe- cies of large fish, which is called Antacaaus : these, which have no prickly fins, the inhabitants salt: it possesses various other things which de- serve our admiration. The course of the stream may be pursued as far as the country called Gerrhus, through a voyage of forty days, and it is known to flow from the north. But of the remoter places through which it passes, no one can speak with certainty ; it seems probable that it runs toward the district of the Scythian hus- bandmen, through a pathless desert. For the space of a ten days journey, these Scythians in- habit its banks. The sources of this river, like those of the Nile, are to mc unknown, as I believe they are to every other Greek. This river, as it approaches the sea, is joined by the Hypanis, and they have both the same termina- tion : the neck of land betwixt these two streams, is called the Ilippolcon promontory, in which a M E L r O M E N E. ill temple is erected to Ceres ^\ Beyond tliis temple as far as the Hypanis, dwell the Borystheiiitcs. — But on this subject enough has been said. LIV. Next to the above, is a fifth river, called the Panticapcs ; this also rises in the north, and from a lake. The interval betwixt this and the Borysthenes, is possessed by the Scythian husband- men. Having passed through Hylaea, the Panti- capcs mixes vv^ith the Borysthenes. LV. The sixth river is called the Hypacyris : this, rising from a lake, and passing through the midst of the Scythian Nomadcs, empties itself into the sea near the town of Carcinitis '*. In its course it bounds to the right Hylaea, and what is called the course of Achilles. LVI. The name of the seventh river is the Gerrhus ; it takes its name from the place Gcrrhus, ^^ To Ceres.'] — Some manuscripts read to " Ceres ;" others, to " the Mother ;" by this latter expression, Ceres must be un- derstood, and not Vesta, as Gronovius would have it. In his observation, that the Scythians were acquainted neither with Ceres nor Cybele, he was perfectly right; but he ought to have remembered that the Borysthenites or Olbiopolita? were of G)-eek origin, and that they had retained many of the customs and usages of their ancestors. — Larchcr. f^-* Carciinfis.l — .Many are of opinion that this is what is now called Golfo di INIoscovia; but as this is in tlie Taurica Chersonesus, now Crimea, it may rather perhaps be Precop, or some adjoining town. 412 MELPOMENE. near which, it separates itself from the Borysthenes, and where this latter river is first known. In its passage toward the sea, it divides the Scythian Nomades from the lloyal Scythians, and then mixes with the Hypacyris. LVII. The eighth river is called the Tanais''"; rising from one immense lake, it empties itself hito another still greater, named the JNIaeotis, which se- parates the Royal Scythians from the Sauromata;. The Tanais is increased by the waters of ano- ther river, called the Hyrgis. LVIII. Thus the Scythians have the advantage of all these celebrated rivers. The grass which ^3 Tandis.] — This river is now called the Don. According to Plutarch, in his Treatise of celebrated Rivers, it derived its name from a young man called Tanis, who, avowing an hatred of the female sex, was by Venus caused to feel an unnatural passion for his own mother; and he drowned himself in consequence in this river. It was also called the river of the Amazons ; and, as appears from an old scholiast on Horace, was sometimes confounded with the Danube. — It divides Europe from Asia : Diuin/siiis. See also Quintus Curtius. — Tanais Europam et Asiam me- dius interfluit, 1. vi. c. '2. Of this river very frequent mention is made by ancient writers; by Horace, jjretlily enough, in the Ode beginning with " Exlrcmum Tanami si biberes. Lyce," tS:c. — T, MELPOMENE. 413 this country produces, is of all that wc know the fullest of moisture, which evidently appears from the dissection of their cattle. LIX. We have shewn that this people possess the greatest abundance ; their particular laws and observances arc these : Of their divinities *'", Vesta is without competition tlie first, then Ju- piter, and Tellus, whom they believe to be the wife of Jupiter * ; next to these are Apollo, the Coclestial Venus, Hercules, and Mars. All the Scythians reve\-e these as deities, but the Royal Scythians pay divine rites also to Neptune. In the Scythian tongue Vesta is called Tahiti ; Ju- piter, and, as I think very properly, Papseus f ; 66 Of their divinities.'] — It is not unworthy the attention of the English reader, that Herodotus is the first author who makes any mention of the religion of the Scythians. In most WM'itings on the subject of ancient mythology, Vesta is placed next to Juno, whose sister she was generally supposed. to be: INIontfaucon also remarks, that the figures which remain of Vesta, have a great resemblance to those of Juno. With respect to this goddess, the ancients were much divided in opinion; Euripides and Dionysius of Ilalicarnassus, agree in calling her Tellus. Ovid seems also to have had ibis in his mind, when he said, " Stat vi terra sua, vi stando ^'esta vocatur." Most of the difficulties on this subject may be solved, by supposing there were two Vestas. — 2\ * Jortin on Spenser, 57. t Fapceus] — or Pappanis, signifying father; as being, ac- cording to Homer, Trarijp avCpuv re Ocuy re, the sire of gods and men. In every language, says Larcber, it is notoiious that ap, pa, and papa, arc the first sounds by which infants distincuish their fathers. 414 M E I. P O M E N E. Tcllas, Apia ; Apollo, (Etosyriis ; the Coelcstial Venus, Artiinpasa ; and Keptune, Tluuniniasadas. Among all these deities. Mars is the only one to whom they think it proper to erect altars, shrines, and temples. IjX. Their mode of sacrifice in every place appointed for the purpose, is precisely tlie same, and it is this : The victim is secured with a rope, hy its two fore feet ; the person who offers the sacrifice"', standing behind, throws the animal down hy means of this rope ; as it falls he invokes the name of the divinity, to whom the sacrijfice is offered; he then fjistens a cord round the neck of the victim, and strangles it, by winding the cord round a stick ; all this is done without fire, without libations, or without any of the ceremonies in use amongst us. When the beast is strano-led, the sacrificer takes off its skin, and prepares to dress it. I^XI. As Scythia is very barren of wood, they have the followinG; contrivance to dress the flesh of tlic victim ; — Having flayed the animal, they C7 JFho offers the sacrifice^ — INIontfuucon, in his account of the gods of the Scythians, apparently gives a translation of this passage, except that he says " the sacrificing priest, after liaving turned aside part of his veil:" Herodotus says no such thing, nor does any writer on tliis subject whom I have had the opportunity of consulting. — T. M E I. r OMEN E. 415 strip the flcsli from the bones, and if tlicy have them at hand, tliey throw it into certain pots made in Scythia, and resembling the Lesbian caldrons, thongli somewliat larger ; under these, a fire is made with the bones ^*'. If these pots can- 1)3 Fire is ma !c uith the hones.'] — IMontfaucou remarks on this passage, that he. does not see how this could be done. Resources equally extiaordinary seem to be applied iu the eastern countries, where there is a great scarcity of fuel. In Persia, it appears froai Sir John Chardin, they burn heath: in Arabia they burn cow-dung ; and according to Dr. Russel, they burn parings of iVuit, and such like things. The prophet Ezekiel was ordered to bake his fond with human dung. See Ezekiel, chap. iv. 12. "Thou shalt bake it with dung that Cometh out of man." Voltaire, in his remarks on this passage, pretends to understand that the prophet was to eat the dung with his food. — " Comme il n'est point d'usage de manger de telles confitures sur son pain, la plupart des hommes trouvent ces commandemens indignes de la INIajeste divin." The passage alluded to admits of no such inference: but it may be concluded, that the burning of bones for the purpose of fuel, *was not a very unusual circumstance, from another passage in Ezekiel. — See chap. x.\iv. 5. " Take also the choice of the flock, and burn the bones under it, and make it boil well." — T. — See on this subject of fuel in Eastern countries, Russel's Aleppo, i. p. 39. The fuel employed for heating them (the bagnios), consists chieliy of the dung of animals, the filth of stables, and the parings of fruit, with the otfals collected by persons who go about the streets for that purpose. These materials, accumu- lated in a yard belonging to the bagnios, both in d.'-ying and when burning, are extremely ofiensive to the neighbourhood. The bakehouses use brushwood, but these are only trouble- some an hour or two in the day. Cow-dung is seldoiu used 4U) M E L P () M E N E. not be procured, tliey enclose the llcsli ^vitll a certain quantity of water in tlie paunch * of the victim, and make -a fire with the bones as before. The bones being very inflammable, and the paunch without difficulty made to contain the flesh sepa- rated from the bone, the ox is thus made to dress itself, which is also the case witli the other victims. When the whole is ready, he who sacrifices, throws down with some solemnity before him the entrails, and the more choice pieces. They sacrifice dif- ferent animals, but horses in particular. LXII. Such are the sacrifices and ceremonies observed with respect to their other deities ; but to the god jNIars, the particular rites which are paid are these : — In every district, they construct a temple to this divinity, of this kind ; bundles of small wood are heaped together, to the length of three stadia, and quite as broad, but not so high ; the top is a regular square, three of the sides are steep and broken, but the fourtli is an inclined plane forming the ascent. To this place are every year brought one hundred and fifty wag- in the city, but by the Arabs and j:easants it is not only used as fuel but tinj)loyed to make a flat pan, in which they fry their eggs. (Jannd and sheeps* dung with brush- wood, or stalks of such plants as grow in the desert, arc the common fuel. * I have also heard that in the Isle of Portland, and in tilhcr parts of r.ni;land, \\\A is made of dried cow-dung. — The same was done, and jjrobaljly is slill d )iie, in Scotland. M E L P O M E N E. 417 gons full of these bundles of wood, to repair the structure, which the severity of the climate is apt to destroy. Upon the summit of such a pile, each Scythian tribe places an ancient scymetar''', which is considered as the shrine of Mars, and is annually honoured by the sacrifice of sheep and horses ; indeed more victims are offered to this deity, than to all the otlicr divinities. It is their custom also to sacrifice every hundredth captive, but in a different manner from their other victims*. Having poured libations upon 69 Ancient sci/nietar.] — It was natural enough that the Scy- thians should adore with pecuhar devotion the god of war ; but as they were incapable of forming either an abstract idea, or a corporeal representation, they worshipped their tutelar deity under the symbol of an iron cimeter. — Gibbon. In addition to this iron scymetar or cimeter, Lucian tells us that the Scythians worshipped Zamolxis as a god. See also Ammianus Marcellinus, xxx. 2. — Nee templum apud eos visitur, aut delubrum, ne tugurium quidem culmo tectum cerni usuuam potest, sed gladiits Barbarico ritu humi figitur nudus, eumque et Martem regionum quas circumcircant prce- sulem verecundius colunt. Larcher, who quotes the above passage from Amm. Mar. tells us from Varro, that anciently at Rome the head of a spear was considered as a representation of Mars. Varro, Festus, and Clemens Alexandrinus, aflirm that Mars was worshipped by the Sabines and Romans under the form of a spear. Plutarch, hi his Life of Romulus, says, the spear placed in the Royal Palace was called Curis or Quiris. * See the History of the Conquest of Mexico, by Bernal Vol. II. E E 41 S :\I E I, P () M E N E. tlicir licads, tlicy cut tlieir tliro.its into a vessel placed for that puii)Ofc;c. AVitli this, carried to the summit of the pile, tliey besmear tlic above- mentioned scymctar, AV^hilst this is doing- above, the following ceremony is observed below : — From these human victims they cut off the right arms close to tlie sjiouldcr, and throw them up into tlie air. This ceremony being performed on eacli victim severally, tliey depart : the arms remain where they happen to fall, the bodies elsewliere. JjXIII. The above is a description of tlieir sacrifices. Swine are never used for tliis purpose, nor will tliey suffer tliem to be kept in their country. LXn^. Their military customs arc these : — Every Scythian drinks the blood of the first per- Diaz del Castillo, traiiblatcd hy Maurice Keating, Esq. p. \Vl. These animals were fetl wiili i;anie, ibwls, dogs, and, as I liave lieard, the hodies of Indians who were sacrificed; the manner of which, I liave been informed, is Uiis : they open the body of the victim, when living, with large knives of stone; they take out his heart and blood, which they offer to their gods, and tlien they cut olf the limbs and the head, upon which they feast, giving the body to bo devoured by the wild beasts, and the sculls they hang up in their temples. How singular must it appear, that in nations so remote, so similar examples of cruelty and superstition siiould pre\ail ! — 7'. M E J. P O M E xN E. 419 son he slays; the heads of all the enemies who fall by his hiand in battle, he presents to his king* : this oifering entitles him to a share of the plnn- der, which he could not otherwise claim. Their mode of stripping the skin from the head'" is this : — They make a circular incision beliind the ears, then, taking hold of the head at the top, they gradually flay it, drawing it towards them. Tliey next soften it in their hands, removing every fleshy part which may remain, by rubbing it with an ox's liide ; they afterwards suspend it, "0 The skin from the head.~\ — To cut oft' the heads of ene- mies slain in battle, seems no unnatural action amongst a race of fierce and warlike barbarians. The art of scalping the head was probably introduced to avoid the trouble and fatigue of carrying these sanguinary trophies to any consi- derable distance. INIany incidents which are here related of the Scythians, will necessarily remind the reader of what is tfild of the native Americans. The following war-song, from Bussu's Travels through Touisiana, places the re- semblance in a striking point of view: — " I go to war to revenge the death of my brothers — I shall kill — I shall ex- terminate— I shall burn my enemies — I shall bring away slaves — I shall devour their hearts, dry their flesh, drink their blood — I shall tear oft" their scalps, and make cups of their sculls." The quickness and dexterity with which the Indians per- form the horrid operation of scalping, is too well known to require any description. This coincidence of manners is very striking, and serves greatly to corroborate the hypothesis, that America was peopled originally from the northern parts of the old continent. — T. E E 2 420 M Er.ro M E N E. thus prepared, from the bridles of their horses, when they both use it as a napkin, and are proud of it as a trophy. AVhoever possesses the greater number of tliese, is deemed the most iUustrious. Some there are who sew together several of these portions of human skin, and convert them into a kind of shepherd's garment. There are others who preserve the skins of the right arms, nails and all, of such enemies as they kill, and use them as a covering for their quivers. The hu- man skin is of all others certainly the whitest, and of a very firm texture ; many Scythians will take the whole skin of a man, and having stretch- ed it upon wood, use it as a covering to their horses. LXV. Such are the customs of this people : this treatment, however, of their enemies' heads, is not universal, it is only perpetrated on those whom they most detest. They cut off the scull, below the eye-brows, and having cleansed it thoroughly, if they are poor, they merely cover it with a piece of leather ; if they are rich, in ad- dition to this, they decorate the inside with gold ; it is afterwards used as a drinking cup *. They * William de Rubruquis travelled through Thibet in the 13th century; and it could not be very far from thence that these Scythians lived in the time of Herodotus. Speaking of the inhabitants, he SJiys, *' In times past they bestowed on 'M E I, P O M E N E. 421 do tlie same with respect to their nearest con- iieetioiis, if any dissensions have arisen, and they overcome them in comhat before tlie king. If any stranger whom they deem of consequence, liappen to visit them, they make a display of these heads'", and relate every circumstance of their parents no other sepulchre than tiieir own bowels, and yet in part retain it, makyng fine cuppes of their deceased parents skulls, that drinking out of them in the middest of their jollitie, they may not forget their progenitors." See Purchas, 430. Hole on the Arabian Nights, p. 257. "^ Display of these /icads.^ — Many instances may be ad- duced, from the Roman and Greek historians, of the heads of enemies vanquished in battle being carried in triumph, or exposed as trophies ; examples also occur in Scripture of tho same custom. Thus David carried the Philistine's head in triumph ; the head of Ishbosheth was brought to David as a trophy ; why did Jael S7/nte off the head of Sisera, but to present it triumphantly to Barak ? It is at the present day practised in the East, many examples of which occur in Niebuhr's Letters. This is too well known to require far- ther discussion ; but many readers may perhaps want to be informed, that it was also usual to cut off the hands and the feet of vanquished enemies. — The hands and feet of the sons of llimmon, who slew Ishbosheth, were cut off and hanged up over the pool of Hebron. — See also Lady Wortley Mon- tague, vol, ii. p. 1,9. " If a minister displeases the people, in three hours time he is dragged even from his master's arms : they cut off his 'hands, head, and feet, and throw them before the palace gate with all the respect in the world ; while the sultan, to whom they all profess unlimited adoration, sits trembling in his apartment." —T. It 422 M E L P O M E N E. the previous connection, tlic provocations re- ceived, and their subsequent victory ; this they consider as a testimony of tlieir valour. LXVI. Once a year the prince or ruler of every district, mixes a goblet of ^vine, of which those Scythians drink"' who have destroyed a It may be added, that the IkkIv oi" Cyrus the younger, as Xenophon tells us in the Anabasis, had its head and right hand cut off. '^ Those Scythians drink.'] — These, with many other cus- toms of the ancient Scythians, will necessarily bring to the mind of the reader various circumstances of the Gothic my- thology, as represented in the poems imputed to Ossian, and as may be seen described at length in ^Mallet's Introduction to the History of Denmark. To sit in the Hull of Odin, and quaff the flowing- goblets of mead and ale, was an idea ever present to the minds of the Gothic warriors ; and the hope of attaining this glorious distinction, inspired a con- tempt of danger, and the most daring and invincible courage. See Gray's Descent of Odin : 0. Tell me what is done below ; For whom yon glittering board is spread, Drest for whom yon golden bed. Pr. Mantling in the goblet see The pure beverage of the bee ; O'er it hangs the shield of gold 'Tis the drink of Balder bold, T. See also in the Edda, the Ode of king Ilegnor Lodbrog. "■ Odin sends his goddesses to conduct me to his puhice. — I am going to sit in the place of honour, to drink ale with the gods. — The hours of my life are passed away, I die in rapture." Some of my readers may inuLably thank mc for M E i> r o :\i E N E. 4m pii])lic enemy *. ]>ut of tliis, tliey \vho have not done such a thing are not pevniittcd to taste ; tlicsc are obliged to sit apart by themselves, ^vhich is considered as a mark of the greatest ignominy ". They Avho have killed a number giving them a specimen of the stanzas, as preserved by Olaus Wormius. 25. Pugnavimns ensibus : Hoc ridere me facit semper, Quod Balden patris scamna Parata scio in aula. Bibemus cerevisiam Ex concavis crateribus cianioium. Non gemit vir fortis contra mortem IMagnifici in Odini domibus, Non venis despcrabundus \'erbis ad Odini aulam. 29. Pert animus iinire ; Invitant me Dysa", (^uas ex Odini aula Odinus milii misit. Lajtus cerevisiam cum Asis 1 n summa sede bibam : Vitas elapsa^ sunt hora» ; Piidens moriar. T. * Something of this kind was done by the Parthians, when the head of Crassus was brought to their king. It should be remembered that the Parthians were descendants of Scythians, and not very far removed. 7' Greatest igiwmim/.] — Ut quisque plures interemit ; i(a apud eos habetur eximius : CEeteriim expertem esse caddis, inter opprobria vel maximum. — Pomp. Mela, 1. ii. c. 1. 124 M E L r () M E N E. of enemies, are permitted on tins occasion to drink from two cnps joined together. LXVII. Tliey have amongst them a great nnmber who practise the art of divination ; for this pnrposc they use a nnmber of wiRow twigs'', in this manner : — They bring large bnndles of these together, and having nntied them, dispose them one by one on the gronnd, eaeli bnndle at a distance from tlie rest. This done, they pre- 7* Willoxv fw'igs.'] — Ammianus Marcelliniis, in speaking of the lluns, says, " Futura luiro piwsagiunt niodo ; nam rec- tiores virgas viniineas colligentes, easque cinn incantamentis qtiibusdani secretis pi.Tstituto tempore discernentes, aperte quid portendatur norunt." — Larcher, in quoting the above j)assage, remarks, that he has seen some traces of this super- stition practised in the province of Berry. Tliere is an ani- mated fragment of Ennius remaining, in \vhich he expresses a most cordial contempt for all soothsayers: as it is not perhaps familiar to every reader, I may be excused insert- ing it. Non vicinos aruspices, non de circo astrologos, Non Isiacos conjectores, non interpretes somnium, Non enim sunt ii aut sapientia aut arte divina, Sed superstitiosi vates, impudentesque harioli, Aut inertes, aut insani, aut quibus egestas imperat. A similar contempt for diviners, is expressed by Jocasta, hi the G^dipus Tyrannus of Sophocles : Yjf.iov iraKovcrov, kui /taO' ovvtK ttrrc aoi I,ct not fear perplex thee, Qildipus ; Mortals know nothing of futurity. And these prophetic seers are all impostors. — T. :M E I. P O M E x\ E. 425 tend to forctel the future, cluring which they take up the bundles separately, and tie them again together. — This mode of divination is he- reditary among them. The enaries, or "effe- minate men," affirm that the art of divination ^^ was taught them by the goddess Venus. They take also the leaves of the lime-tree, which di- viding into three parts they twine round their lingers ; they then unbind it, and exercise the art to whieh they pretend. LXVIII. Whenever the Scythian monarch happens to be indisposed, he sends for three of the most celebrated of these diviners. When the Scythians desire to use the most solemn kind T5 Art of dkination.'] — To enumerate the vaiious modes of divination which have at different times been practised by the ignorant and superstitious, would be no easy task. We read of hydromancy, Ubanomancy, onyctomancy, divinations by earth, iire, and air : we read in Ezekiel of divination by a rod or wand. To some such mode of divination, in all pro- bability, the following passage from Ilosea alludes. " IMy people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them." This passage affords an additional explanation of that which occurs in vol. i. Whether this phivnomenon was more common in Scythia after a particular event, or whe- ther it were a disease or languor, the subjects of it formed a distinct class of people^ and fell into every effeminate excess. — For farther remarks on this subject, see the end of this volume, where the reader will find a novel explana- tion, for which 1 am indebted to Mr. Blair. 426 M E L r O M E N E. of oath, they swear by the king's throne '" : tliesc diviners, therefore, make no scruple of afiirming, that such or sucli individual, pointing him out by name, has forsworn himself by the royal throne. — Immediately the person thus marked out is seized, and informed that by their art of divination, which is infallible, he has been indi- rectly the occasion of the king's illness, by hav- ing violated the oath which we have mentioned. If the accused not only denies the charge, but expresses himself enraged at the imputation, the king convokes a double number of diviners, who, examining into the mode which has been pur- sued in criminating him, decide accordingly. If he be found guilty, he immediately loses his head, and the three diviners who were first consulted, share his effects. If these last diviners accpiit the accused, others are at hand, of whom if the greater number absolve him, the first diviners arc put to death. LXIX. The manner in which they are exe- cuted is this: — Some oxen are yoked to a wag- gon filled with fagots, in the midst of which, with their feet tied, their hands fastened behind, 'S King's throni'.'] — " Tlie Turks al this day," says Larcher, " swear by the Ottoman Porte." Reiske has tlie same remark : " Adhuc obtinet apud Turcas, per Portam Ottomanicum, hoc est, domiciliuni sui principis, jurarc."— 7'. M E L r O M E N E. 427 and their mouths gagged, these diviners arc placed; fire is then set to the wood, and the oxen arc terrified, to make them run violently away. It sometimes happens that the oxen themselves arc burned ; and often when the waggon is consumed, the oxen escape severely scorched. This is the method by which, for the above-mentioned or similar offences, they put to death those Avhom they call false diviners. LXX. Of those whom the king condemns to death, he constantly destroys the male children, leaving the females unmolested. Whenever the Scythians form alliances'^, they observe these ceremonies : — A large earthen vessel is filled with wine ; into this is poured some of the blood of the contracting parties, obtained by a slight incision of a knife or a sword * ; in this cup they dip a scymetar, some arrows, a hatchet, and a spear. After this, they pronounce some solemn prayers. 77 Form allia/)C('s.~\ — See book i. c. 7-J-- * On this subject, Larcher relates the following anecdote from Daniel's History of France : " When Henry the Third entered Poland, to take pos- session of the crown, he found on his arrival thirty thousand cavalry ranged in order of battle. The general of these ad- vancing towards him, drew his sword, pierced his arm with it, and receiving in his hand the blood which flowed from the wound, drank it, saying, " Evil be to him among us who would not shed in your service every drop of his blood; it is from this principle that I count it nothing to shed my own." 428 jNI E L r O :\I E N E. and tlic parties wlio form the contract, \vitli such of their friends as arc of superior dignity, linally drink the contents of the vessel. LXXT. Tlic sepulchres of the kings arc in the district of the Genhi. As soon as the king dies'", a large trench of a quadrangular form is sunk, near where the 15orysthenes begins to be navigable. When this has been done, the body is inclosed in wax, after it has been thoroughly cleansed, and the entrails taken out ; before it is sown up, they fill it with anise, parsley-seed, bruised cypress, and various aromatics. They then place it on a carriage, and remove it to another district, where the persons who receive it, like the Royal Scythians, cut off a part of their ear *, shave their heads in a circular form, take a round piece of flesh from tlicir arm, wound their foreheads and noses, and pierce their left hands with arrows. The body is again carried to another province of the deceased kings realms, "'' King dies.'] — A minute and interesting description of the funeral ceremonies of various ancient nations, may be found in Montfaucon, vol. v. 126, (Sec. — T. Tlie funeral ceremonies of the Scythian kings, and the golden goblets buried with them imder large barrows, remind us of the tombs found in Great Tartary, ascribed to the de- scendants of Genghis Kan, in the 13th century. See Archae- ologia, V. iii. p. 222. * Bayer, in his Memoria^ Scythicic, makes Herodotus say llial the Scythians cut oil' a pit'ce of tJie king's ear. AI E L P O M E N E. 429 the inhabitants of the former district accompa- nying the procession. After thns transporting the dead body through the different provinces of the knigdom, they come at last to the Gcrrhi, who live in the remotest parts of Scythia, and amongst whom the sepulchres are. Here the corpse is placed upon a couch, round which, at different distances, daggers are fixed ; upon the whole are disposed pieces of wood, covered with branches of willow. In some other part of this trench, they ])ury one of the deceased's concu- bines, whom they previously strangle, together with the baker, the cook, the groom, his most confidential servant, his horses, the choicest of his effects, and, finally, some golden goblets, for they possess neither silver nor brass : to conclude all, they fill up the trench with earth, and seem to be emulous in their endeavours to raise as high a mound as possible*. * Modern discoveries abundantly prove the general truth of our author's report concerning the sepulchres of the an- cient Scythians ; if it be allowed that a part of the tumuli, found in the plains towards the upper branches of the Irtish, Oby, &c. are of so ancient a date : or, on the other hand, if the sepulchres in question are not so ancient, it at least proves that the same custom prevailed amongst their de- scendants. It appears, that tumuli are scattered over the whole tract, from the borders of the ^V'olga and its western branches, to the lake Baikal. Those amongst them, which have attracted the greatest notice, on the score of the gold and silver (but [uincipally the former) contained in them. ICO M E T. POME N E. IjXXII. The ceremony docs not terminate here. — They select such of tlie deceased king's attendants, in the follouing year, as have been most about liis person ; these arc all native Scy- thiaTis, for in Scytliia there are no purchased slaves, tlie king selecting such to attend him as he thinks proper : fifty of these they strangle ' ', lie helween the Wolga and the Obi/: for, those which are farther to the east, and more particularly, at the upper part of the Jciiisei, have the utensils contained in them, of copper. It has not come to our knowledge, that any of these mo- numents have been found in the Ukraine, where the sepul- chres described by Herodotus should have been; however, it may be conceived that it is a sufficient testimony of the general truth of his description, that they are found so far west as the suiitlicni parts of Rii.s.si(i, and on tlie l^anks of the Okka, Wolga, and 'i'anais ; since much the same sort of customs may have been supposed to exist amongst the Scy- thians and Sarraatians generally; and it is certain that the S(iri)!a(ia/is and seceding Sct/t/iians occupied the tracts just mentioned. — Rennell. ^'J T/iej/ straiig/e.] — \'oUaire supposes that they impaled alive the favourite ofHcers of the khan of the Scythians, round the dead body; whereas Herodotus expressly says that tliey strangled them first. — Larchcr. Whoever has occasion minutely to examine any of the more ancient authors, will frequently feel his contempt ex- cited, or his indignation provoked, from finding a multitude of passages ignorantly misunderstood, or wilfully perverted. This remark is in a particular manner applicable to INI. Voltaire, in whose w'ork false and partial quotations, witli ignorant misconceptions of the ancients, obviously abound. 'I'iie learned I'auw cannot in this respect be intirely excul- pated; and ] h;ive a pas?:age now before me in which the M E L P O M E N E. 431 with an equal niinibor of his best horses. They open and cleanse the bodies of them all, which having filled with straw, they sew up again : then upon two jiieces of wood they place a third, of a semicircular form, with its concave side up- permost, a second is disposed in like manner, then a third, and so on, till a sufiicient number have been erected. Upon these semicircular pieces of wood they place the horses, after pass- ing large poles through them, from the feet to the neck. One part of the structure, formed as we have described, supports the shoulders of the horse, the other his hinder parts, whilst the legs are left to project upwards. The horses are then bridled, and the reins fastened to the legs ; upon each of these they afterwards place one of the youths who have been strangled, in the following manner : a pole is passed through each, quite to fault I would reprobate is eminently conspicuous. Speaking of the Chinese laws, he says, " they punish the relations of a criminal convicted of a capital offence with death, excepting the females, uhom they sell as slaves, following in this respect the maxim of the Scythians, recorded by He- rodotus." On the contrary, our historian says, chap. 70, that the females are not molested. A similar remark, as it respects M. Pauw, is somewhere made by Larcher. — T. In the mild and polished country of China, the Emperor Chun-Tchi having lost one of his wives, sacrificed more than thirty slaves upon her tomb. He was a Tartar, that is, a Scythian; which historical _fact, observes Larcher, may serve to make what Herodotus relates of the ancient Scythians the more credible. 432 M E I. r O M E N E. tlic neck, through the hack, tlie extremity of which is fixed to tlic piece of timber with which the horse has been spitted ; liaving done this with cacli, they so leave them. IjXXIII. The above are the ceremonies ob- served in the interment of their kings : as to the people in general, when any one dies, the neigli- bours place the body on a carriage, and carry it about to tlie different acquaintance of tlie de- ceased ; these prepare some entertainment for those who accompany the corpse, placing the same before the body, as before the rest. Private persons, after being thus carried about for the space of forty days, are then buried"'. They ^° Are then hiiricd.] — The Scythians did not all of them observe the same customs with respect to tlieir funerals : there were some who suspended the dead bodies from a tree, and in that state left them to putrefy. " Of what coiisc- fjuencc," says Plutarch, " is it to I'heodorus, whether he rots in the earth, or upon it? — Such with the Scytliians is the most honourable funeral." Silius Italicus mentions also this custom : At gente in Scythicil sudixa cadavera truncis Lenta dies sepeht, putri liquentia tabo. It is not perhaps without its use to observe, that barbarous nations have customs barbarous like themselves, and that these customs much resemble each other, in nations which have no communication. Captain Cook relates, tliat in Otaheite they leave dead bodies to putrefy on the surface of the ground, till the tlesh is intirely wasted, they then bin-y the bones. — Lunhtr. See ll(cu:h.si.atrth's Voiiuircs. M E L P O i\I E N E. 433 wlio have been engaged in the performance of these rites, afterwards use the following mode of purgation : — After thoroughly washing the head, and then drying it, they do thus with regard to tlie body ; they place in the ground three stakes, inclining towards each other ; round these they bind fleeces of wool as thickly as pos- sible, and finally, into the space betwixt the stakes they throw red-hot stones. LXXIV. They have among them a species of hemp resembling flax, except that it is both thicker and larger ; it is indeed superior to flax, Vk^hether it is cultivated or grows spontaneously. Of this the Thracians" make themselves garments, which so nearly resemble those of flax, as to require a skilful eye to distinguish them : they who had never seen this hemp, would conclude these vests to be made of flax. LXXV. The Scythians take the seed of this hemp, and placing it beneath the woollen fleeces which we have before described, they throw it upon the red-hot stones, when immediately a 81 Of this the Thracians.~\ — Hesychius says that the Thracian women make themselves gai'ments of hemp : consult him at the word Ka»'va/3tt: — " Hemp is a plant which has some re- semblance to flax, and of which the Thracian women make themselves vests." — T. Vol. II. F f 434 MELPOMENE. perfumed vapour ''' ascends stronger tlian from any Grecian sto\'e. This, to the Scythians, is in the place of a bath, and it excites from them cries of ^' // perfumed xapuiir.] — I translate, for the bcnclit of the feader, what Pala-phatus says upon the subject of IMedea's magic powers. Concerning Medea, wlio was said, by the process of boiling, to make old men young again, the matter was this : she first of all discovered a flower which could make the colour of the liair black or white ; such therefore as wished to have black hair rather than white, by her means obtained their wish. Having also invented baths, she nourished with warm vapours those who wished it, but not in public, that the professors of the medical art might net know her secret. The name of this application was irapt\p)}(n<;, or " the boiling." When therefore by these fomentations men became more active, and improved in health, and her apparatus, namely the caldron, wood, and fire, was discovered, it was supposed that her patients were in reality boiled. Pelias, an old and infirm man, using this operation, died in the process. — T. The reader will necessarily be impressed with the particu- lar resemblance to this custom, which we find at this day among the Finlanders. The following description is given by one of the latest travellers in that country : Almost all the forest peasants have a small house built on purpose for a bath; it consists of only one small chamber, in the innermost part of which are placed a number of stones, which are heated by^ fire till they become red. On these stones thus heated, water is thrown, until the company within be involved in a thick cloud of vapoui'. In this inner- most parr, the chamber is formed of two stories for the ac- commodation of a greater number of persons within that small compass ; and it being the nature of heat and vfipour to ascend, the second storv is of course the hottest, iS:c. — Acerlti. M E L r O ]V[ E N E. 435 exultation. It is to be observed, that they never bathe themselves : the Scythian women bruise under a stone, some wood of tlie cypress, cedar, and frankincense ; upon this tliey pour a quantity of water, till it becomes of a certain consistency, with which they anoint the body °' and the face; ^^ Anoint the Ixah/.] — When we read in this place of the custom of anointing the body amongst an uncivihzed race, in a cold cUmate, and alterwards find that in warmer regions it became an indispensable article of luxury and elegance with the politest nations, we pause to admire the caprice and versatihty of the human mind. Tiie motive of the Scythians was at first perhaps only to obtain agility of body, without any views to cleanliness, or thoughts of sensuality. In hot climates, fragrant oils were prot)ably first used to disperse those foetid smells which heat has a tendency to generate; precious ointments therefore soon became essential to the enjoyment of life ; and that they really were so, may be easily made appear from all the best writers of antiquity. See Anacreon, Ode xv. E^fot /^i!:\ti JLivooicri Yj/iioi /iieXii pocoKTi Wara(TTE(j)et7' Kapijya, Let my hair with unguents flow, With rosy garlands crown my brow. See also Horace : funde capacibus Unguenta de conchis. The same fact also appears from the sacred Scriptures ; see the threat of the prophet Micah : " Thou shalt tread the olive, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil." These ¥ -p 2 436 MELPOMENE. this at the time imparts an agreeable odour, and wlieii removed on the following day, gives the skin a soft and beautiful appearance. L.XXVI. The Scythians have not only a great abhorrence of all foreign customs, but each pro- vince seems unalterably tenacious of its own. Those of the Greek they particularly avoid, as appears both from Anacharsis and Scyles. Of Anacharsis it is remarkable, that having personally visited a large part of the habitable world, and acquired great wisdom, he at length returned to Scythia. In his passage over the Hellespont, he touched at Cyzicus^*, at the time when the inha- bitants were celebrating a solemn and magnificent festival to the mother of the gods. He made a vow, that if he should return safe and without instances are only adduced to prove that fragrant oils were used in private life for the purposes of elegant luxury ; how they were applied in athletic exercises, and always before the baths, is sufficiently notorious. I might also with great propriety refer to the costly and most piecious ointment which was made by INloses at the command of God himself, and to which David so beautifully alludes; — " Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the piecious ointment upon the head that ran down unto the beard, even unto Aaron's beard, and went down to the skiits of his clothing."— 7'. ii* Cyzicus.'] — 'Ihis Cyzicus was formerly an island, but is now a peninsula. It was besieged by JNlilhiidates, and has been desciibed by Pococke. Here also was a tin)|.lc on Mount Dindymene. MELPOMENE. 437 injury to his country, he would institute, in honour of liis deity, the same rites wliicli he had seen performed at Cyzicus, together with the solemnities observed on the eve of her festival ^^. Arriving therefore in Scythia, in the district of Hylaea, near the Course of Achilles, a place abounding with trees, he performed all tlic par- ticulars of the abovementioned ceremonies, hav- ing a number of small statues fastened about him ^''\ with a cymbal in his hand. In this situa- 85 Eve of her festival^ — These festivals probably com- menced early on the evening before the day appointed for their celebration ; and it seems probable that they passed the night in singing hymns in honour of the god or goddess to whom the feast was instituted. Sec the Pervigilium Veneris. — Larchcr. The Pervigilia were observed principally in honour of Ceres and of Venus, and, as appears from Aulus Gellius, and other writers, were converted to the purposes of excess and debauchery. — T. 86 Statues fastened about Mm.] — These particularities are related at length in Apollonius Rhodius, book 1. 1139. — This circumstance of the small figures tied together, is totally omitted by Mr. Fawkes in his version, who satisfies himself by saying. The Phrygians still their goddess' favour win By the revolving wheel and timbrel's din. The truest idea perhaps of the rites of Cybele, may be ob- tained from a careful perusal of the Atys of Catullus, one of the most precious remains of antiquity, and perhaps the only perfect specimen of the old dithyrambic verse. — T. 438 :V1 E L r O IVI E N E. tion he was observed by one of the natives, ^vho gave intelligence of what he had seen to Saulius, the Scythian king. The king went instantly to the place, and seeing Anacharsis so emi^loycd, killed him with an arrow. — If any enqniries are now made concerning this Anacharsis, the Scy- thians disclaim all knowledge of him, merely because he visited Greece, and had learned some foreign customs : but I have been informed by Timnes, the tutor of Spargapithes, that ^Vnacharsis was the uncle of Idanthyrsus, a Scythian king, and that he was the son of Gnurus, grandson of Lycus, and great-grandson of Spargapithes. If therefore this genealogy be true, it appears that Anacharsis was killed by his own brother ; for Saulius, who killed Anacharsis, was the father of Idanthyrsus *. LXXVII. It is proper to acknowledge, that from the Peloponnesians I have received a very different account: they affirm that Anacharsis was sent by the Scythian monarch to Greece, for the express purpose of improvhig himself in science; and they add, that at his return he informed his employer, that all the people of Greece were oc- cupied in scientific pursuits, except the Laccdec- monians ; but they alone endeavoured to perfect * A long life of this Anacharsis may be found in Diogenes Laertius. M I- L r C) M E N E. 4S9 themselves in discreet and v.isc conversation. This, however, is a tale of Grecian invention ; I am convinced that Anacharsis was killed in the manner which has been described, and that he owed his destruction to the practice of foreign customs and Grecian manners. LXXVIII. Notmany years afterwards, Scyles, the son of Aripithes, experienced a similar fortune. Aripithes, king of Scythia, amongst many other children, had this son Scyles by a woman of Istria, who taught him the language and sciences of Greece. It happened that Aripithes was treason- ably put to death by Spargapithes, king of tlie Agathyrsi. He was succeeded in his dominions by this Scyles, who married one of his father's wiyes, whose name was Opaea. Opaea was a na- tive of Scythia, and had a son named Oricus by her former husband. When Scyles ascended the Scythian throne, he was exceedingly averse to the manners of his country, and very partial to those of Greece, to which he had been accus- tomed from his childhood. As often therefore as he conducted the Scythian forces to the city of the Borysthenitcs, who affirm that they are de- scended from the JNIilesians, he left his army before the town, and entering into the place, secured the gates. He then threw aside his Scy- thian dress, and assumed the habit of Greece. In this, without guards or attendants, it was his 440 M E L r O M E N E. custom to ^parade through the public square, liaving the caution to place guards at the gates, that no one of his countrymen might discover him. He not only thus shewed his partiality to the customs of Greece, hut he also sacrificed to the ffods in the Grecian manner. After continu- ing in the city for the space of a month, and sometimes for more, he would resume his Scythian dress, and depart. This he frequently repeated, having built a palace in this town, and married an inhabitant of the place. LXXIX. It seemed however ordained'''' that his end should be unfortunate ; which accordingly ha])pcncd. It was his desire to be initiated into the mysteries of Bacchus ; and he was already about to take some of the sacred utensils in his liands, wlien the following prodigy appeared to him. I have before mentioned the palace which "7 Jt seemed hoivever ordained.^ — This idea, which occurs repeatedly in the more ancient writers, is most beautifull}' expressed in the Persffi of iEschylus ; which I give the reader in the animated version of Potter. For when Misfortune's fraudful hand Prepares to pour the vengeance of tlie sky, What mortal shall her force withstand, What rapid speed Ui' impending fury fly? Gentle at first, with flattering smiles, She spreads her soft enchanting wiles ; So to her toils allures her destin'd prey, ^\'l)en^e man ne'er breaks unlnnt away- T. MELPOMENE. 441 he had in the city of the Borysthenitcs ; it was a very large and magnificent structure, and the front of it was decorated with sphinxes and grif- fins of white marble : the lightning ^ of heaven descended upon it, and it was totally consumed. Scyles nevertheless persevered in what he had undertaken. The Scythians reproach the Greeks on account of their Bacchanalian festivals, and assert it to be contrary to reason, to suppose that any deity should prompt men to acts of madness. When the initiation of Scyles was completed, one of the Borysthenitcs discovered to the Scythians what he had done. — " You Scythians,'' says he, " censure us on account of our Bacchanalian " rites, when we yield to the impulse of the deity. " This same deity has taken possession of your sovereign, he is now obedient in his service, and under the influence of his power. If you disbelieve my words, you have only to follow me, and have ocular proof that what I say is ^2 Tlie Ughtning.~\ — The ancients believed that lightning never fell but by the immediate interposition of the gods ; and whatever thing or place was struck by it, was ever after deemed sacred, and supposed to have been consecrated by the deity to himself. There were at Rome, as we learn from Cicero de Divinatione, certain books called " Libri Fulgu- rales," expressly treating on this subject. In Ammianus Marcellinus, this expression occurs ; " contacta loca nee in- tueri nee calcari debere pronuntiant libri fulgurales." The Greeks placed an urn over the place where the lightning fell : the Romans had a similar observance. (( U2 M E L r O M E N E. " true." The principal Scythiiiiis accordingly followed him, and by a secret avenue were by him conducted to the citadel. When they beheld Scyles approach with his thiasus, and in every other respect acting the Bacchanal, they deemed the matter of most calamitous importance, and returning, informed the army of all that they had seen. LXXX. As soon as Scyles returned, an in- surrection was excited against him ; and his brother Octomasades, whose mother was the daughter of Tereus, was promoted to the throne. Scyles having learned the particulars and the motives of this revolt, fled into Thrace; against which place, as soon as he was informed of this event, Octomasades advanced with an army. The Thracians met him at the Ister ; when they were upon the point of engaging, Sitalces sent an herald to Octomasades, with this message : *' A " contest betwixt us would be absurd, for you are " the son of my sister. INIy brother is in your " power ; if you will deliver him to me, I will " give up Scyles to you ; thus we shall mutually " avoid all danger." As the brother of Sitalces iiad taken refuge with Octomasades, tlie above overtures effected a peace. The Scythian king surrendered up his uncle, and received the person of his brother. Sitalces immediately withdrew his army, taking with him liis brother : but on MELPOMENE. 443 that very day Octomasadcs deprived Scylcs of his head. Thus tenacious are the Scythians of their national customs, and such is the fate of those who endeavour to introduce foreign ceremonies amongst them. LXXXI. On the populousness of Scythia I am not able to speak with decision ; they liavc been represented to me by some as a numerous people, whilst others have informed me, that of real Scythians there are but few. I shall relate however what has fallen within my own observa- tion. Betwixt the Borysthenes and the Hypanis, there is a place called Exampaeus : to this I have before made some allusion, when speaking of a fountain which it contained, whose waters were so exceedingly bitter, as to render the Hypanis, into which it flows, perfectly impalatable. In this place is a vessel of brass, six times larger than that wliicli is to be seen in the entrance of Pontus, consecrated there by Pausanias '^■' the 89 Consecrated there by Patisanias.] — Nymphis of Ileraclea relates, in the sixteenth book of his history of his country, that Pausanias, who vanquished Mardonius at Platea, in violation of the laws of Sparta, and yielding to his pride, consecrated, whilst he was near Bj'zantium, a goblet of brass to those gods whose statues may be seen at the mouth of the Euxine, which goblet may still be seen. \^anity and inso- lence had made him so far forget himself, t!iat he presumed to specify in the inscrii)tion, that it was he himself who had 44,4 MELPOMENE. son of Cleombrotus. For the benefit of tliosc who may not have seen it, I shall here tlcscribc it. This vessel which is in Scytliia, is of the thickness of six digits, and capable of containing six hundred amphorae. The natives say that it was made of the points of arrows, for that Arian- tas^°, one of their kings, being desirous to ascer- tain the number of the Scythians, commanded each of his subjects, on pain of death, to bring him the point of an arrow : by these means, so prodi- gious a quantity were collected, that this vessel was composed from tliem. It was left by the prince as a monument of the fact, and by him con- secrated at Exampa3us. — This is what I have heard of the populousncss of Scythia. consecrated it : " Pausanias of Laceda^mon, son of Cleom- brotus, and of the ancient race of Hercules, general of Greece, has consecrated this goblet to Neptune, as a monument of his valour." — At/icncEus. What would have been the indignation of tljis or any his- torian of that period, if he could have foreseen the base and servile inscriptions dedicated in after-times, in almost all parts of the habitable world, to the Ciesars and their vile descend- ants? Many of these have been preserved, and are an outrage against all decency. — 7\ ^ Ariantas.l — I have now a remarkable instance before me, how dangerous it is to take upon trust what many learned men put down upon the authority of ancient writers. Hoffman, whose Lexicon is a prodigy of learning and of industry, speak- ing of this Ariantas, says, " that he made each of his subjects bring him even/ year the point of an arrow." For the truth of this, he refers the reader to Herodotus, and the passage before us. Herodotus says no such thing. — T. MELPOMENE. 445 LXXXIL This country has nothing remark- able except its rivers, vvhicli are equally large and numerous. If besides these and its vast and ex- tensive plains, it possesses any thing worthy of admiration, it is an impression which they shew of the foot of Hercules '^\ This is upon a rock, two cubits in size, but resembling the footstep of a man ; it is near the river Tyras. 91 Foot of Hercules.] — The length of the foot of Hercules was ascertained by that of the stadium at Olympia, which was said to have been measured by him to the length of 6OO of his own feet: hence Pythagoras estimated the size of Her- cules by the rule of proportion ; and hence too the proverb, ex pede Iltrculem, a more modern substitution for the ancient one of £^ ovv^Mv Xtovra. — See Aul. Gell. 1. i. and Erasmus's Adagia, in which the proverb of ex pede Herculem has no place. — T. Similar traditions and superstitions prevail in other parts of the world, and even at this day. The following is from Symes's account of his embassy to Ava : In the course of our walks, not the least curious object that presented itself was a flat stone, of a coarse grey granite, laid horizontally on a pedestal of masonry, six feet in length and three wide, protected from the weather by a wooden shed. This stone, like that at Ponoodang, was said to bear the genuine print of the foot of Gandma, and we were informed that a similar impression is to be seen on a large rock situated between two hills, one day's journey west of Memboo. On the plane of the foot, upwards of one hundred emblematical figures are engraven in separate compartments ; two convoluted serpents are pressed beneath the feet, and five conch-shells with the involutions to the right form the toes : it was explained to me as a type of the creation, and was held in profound reverence. There is said to be a similar 44(5 M E L P O M E N E. LXXXIII. I sliall now return to the subject from which I originally digressed. — Darius, pre- paring to make an expedition against Scythia, dispatched emissaries different ways, commanding some of his dependents to raise a supply of in- fantry, otlicrs to prepare a fleet, and others to throw a bridge over the Thracian Bosphorus. Artabanus, son of Hystaspes, and brother of Da- rius, endeavoured to dissuade the prince from his purpose, urging with great wisdom the indigence of Scythia; nor would he desist till he found all liis arguments ineffectual. Darius, having com- pleted his preparations, advanced from Susa with his army. LXXXn'^. Upon this occasion a Persian, whose name was (Ebazus, and who had three sons in the army, asked permission of the kiug to detnin one of them. The king replied, as to a friend, tliat the petition was very modest, " and " that he would leave him all the three." (Eba- zus was greatly delighted, and considered his three sons as exempted from the service : but the king commanded his guards to put the three young men to death ; and thus were the three sons of (Ebazus left, deprived of life. impression on a rock on Adam's Peak, in the island of Cey- lon, and it is Iraditionally believed both by the Birmans, the Siamese, and the Cingalese, that Gaudma or lioodh placed one foot on the Continent, and the other on the island of Ceylon, p. 24S. M E I. P O M E N E. 447 LXXX^"". Darius marched from Siisa to where the bridge* had been thrown over the Bosphorus at Chalcedoii. Here he embarked and set sail for the Cyanean islands, which, if the Greeks may be behevcd, formerly floated ■ ". Here, sitting in the temple-", he cast his eyes over the Euxinc, * The bridge of Darius, which was for the purpose of trans- porting his army into Scjthia, through Tiirace by the right, was laid across the Bosphorus, now called the Canal of Con- stantinople.— Reii/iell. 9* Foniici'li/ floated.'] — The Cyanean rocks were at so little distance one from the other, that, viewed remotely, they ap- peared to touch. 'I'his optic illusion probably gave place to the fable, and the fable gained credit from the dangers encoun- tered on this sea. — Lurcher. See a description of these rocks, in Apollonius Rhodius : I give it from the version of Fawkes. When hence your destined voyage you pursue, Two rocks will rise, tremendous to the view. Just in the entrance of the watery waste, Which never mortal yet in safety pass'd. Not firmly fix'd, for oft, with hideous shock, Adverse they meet, and rock encounters rock. The boiling billows dash their hairy brow. Loud thundering round the ragged shore below. The circumstance of their floating is also mentioned by ^'ale- rius Flaccus ; Errantesque per altum Cyaneas T. 93 /// the temple.] — Jupiter was invoked in this temple, under the name of Urius, because this deity was supposed favourable to navigation, ovpoi; signifying a favourable wind. And never could there be more occasion for his assistance than in a sea remarkably tempestuous. — Larcher, 448 MELPOMENE. wliicli of all seas most deserves admiration. Its lensrtli is eleven thousand one hundred stadia; its breadth, where it is greatest, is three thou- sand two hundred. The breadth of the en- trance is four stadia; the length of the neck, which is called the Eosphorus, where the bridge had been erected, is about one hundred and twenty stadia. The Eosphorus is connected with the Propontis ■^*, which flowing into the Helles- pont ^^ is five hundred stadia in breadth, and 9-* Fropontix.] — Between the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, the shores of Europe and Asia, receding on either side, inclose the sea of Marmara, which was known to the ancients by the denomination of Propontis. The navigation from the issue of the Bosphorus to the entrance of Hellespont, is about one hundred and twenty miles. Those who steer their west- ward course through the middle of the Propontis, may at once descry the high lands of Thrace and Bithynia, and never lose sight of the lofty summit of mount Olympus, covered with eternal snows. They leave on the left a deep gulf, at the bottom of which, Nicomedia was seated, the imperial resi- dence of Diocletian ; and they pass the small islands of Cy- zicus and Proconnesus, before they cast anchor at Gallipoli, where the sea which separates Asia from Europe, is again con- tracted into a narrow channel. — Gibbon. 9^ Ildlf.spuiit .] — 'Jhe geographers, who, with the most skil- ful accuracy, have surveyed the form and extent of the Ilel- Icspout, assign about sixty miles for the winding course, and about tln-ee miles for the ordinary breadth of these celebrated straights. But the narrowest part of the channel is found to the northward of the old Turkish castles, between the cities of Sestos and Abydos. It was here that the adventurous Leunder braved the passage of the Hood for the possession M E L P O M E N E. 449 four hundred in length. The Hellespont itself, in its narrowest part, where it enters the iEgean sea, is forty stadia long, and seven wide* LXXXVI. The exact mensuration of these seas is thus determined ; in a long day '* a ship will sail the space of seventy thousand orgyia3, and sixty thousand hy night. From the entrance of the Euxine to Phasis, which is the extreme length of this sea, is a voyage of nine days and eight nights, which is equal to eleven hundred and ten thousand orgyiae, or eleven thousand one hundred stadia. The broadest part of tliis sea, which is from Sindica^^ to Themiscyra, on the river Thermodon, is a voyage of three days and of his mistress : — It was here Ukewise, in a place where the distance between the opposite banks cannot exceed five hun- dred paces, that Xerxes composed a stupendous bridge of boats for the purpose of transporting into Europe an hun- dred and seventy myriads of Barbarians. A sea contracted within such narrow Hmits may seem but ill to deserve the epithet of broad, which Homer as well as Orpheus has fre- quently bestowed on the Hellespont. — Gibbon. 9^ In a long dai/.'] — That is, a ship iii a long day would sail eighty miles by day, and seventy miles by night. See Wes- seling's notes on this passage. — T. 97 Sindica.] — The river Indus was often called the Sindns. There were people of this name and family in Thrace. Some would alter it to Sindicon, but both terms are of the same purport. Herodotus speaks of a regio Sindica, upon the Pontus Euxinus, opposite to the river Thermodon, This Vol. II. G g 450 M E I. P O M E N E. two nights, whicli is equivalent to three thou- sand three hundred stadia, or three hundred and thirty thousand orgyiae. The Pontus, the Bos- phorus, and the Hellespont, were thus severally measured by me ; and circumstanced as I have already described. Tlie Palus ^la^otis flows into the P^uxine, which in extent almost equals it, and which is justly called the mother of the Euxine *. LXXXVII. When Darius had taken a survey of the Euxine, he sailed back again to the bridge constructed by IMandroclcs the Samian. He then examined the Bosphorus, near which'*" he some would alter to Sindira, but both terms are of the same amount. The Ind or Indus of the east is at this day called the Sind ; and was called so in the time of Pliny. — Bryant. * See what Major Rennell says on this subject, p. 53, as well as on the bridges constructed over the Hellespont by Darius and Xerxes, p. 120, & seq. 9^5 Near u/iic/i.] — The new castles of Europe and Asia are constructed on either continent upon the foundations of two celebrated temples of Serapis, and of Jupiter Urius. The old castles, a work of the Greek emperors, command the narrowest part of the channel, in a place where the op- posite banks advance within five hundred paces of each other. These fortresses were restored and strengthened by Mahomet the Second, when he meditated the siege of Con- stantinople : but the Turkish conqueror was most probably ignorant that near two thousand years before his reign, Da- rius had chosen the same situation to connect the two conti- nents by a bridge of boats. — Gibbon. MELPOMENE. 451 ordered two columns of white marble to be erected ; upon one were inscribed in Assyrian, on the other in Greek characters, the names of the different nations which followed him. In this expedition he was accompanied by all the na- tions which acknowledged his authority, amount- ing, cavalry included, to seventy thousand men, independent of his fleet, which consisted of six hundred ships. These columns the Byzantines afterwards removed to their city, and placed before the altar of the Orthosian Diana '^-', ex- cepting only one stone, which they deposited in their city before the temple of Bacchus, and which was covered with Assyrian characters. That part of the Bosphorus where Darius or- dered the bridge to be erected, is, as I conjecture, nearly at the point of middle distance between Byzantium and the temple at the entrance of the Euxine *. LXXX^^III. With this bridge Darius was so much delighted, that he made many valuable 99 Orthosian Diana.] — We are told by Plutarch, that in honour of the Orthosian Diana, the young men of Lace- dgemon permitted themselves to be flagellated at the altar with the extremest severity, without uttering the smallest complaint. — T. * See Rennell on this subject, as before quoted. G G 2 452 MELPOMENE. presents '*' to Maiulrocles the Samiaii, who con- structed it ; with the produce of these, the artist caused a representation to be made of the Bos- phorus, with the bridge thrown over it, and the king seated on a throne, reviewing his troops as they passed. Tliis he afterwards consecrated in the temple of Juno, with this inscription : Thus was the fishy Eosphorus inclos'd. When Samian IMandrocles his bridge impos'd : Who there, obedient to Darius' will, Approv'd his country's fame, and private skill. LXXXIX. Darius, having rewarded the artist, passed over into Europe : he had previously or- dered the lonians to pass over the Euxine to the Ister, where having erected a bridge, they were to wait his arrival. To assist this expedition, the lonians and ^olians, with the inhabitants of the Hellespont, had assembled a fleet; accord- ingly, having passed the Cyanean islands, they sailed directly to the Ister ; and arriving, after a passage of two days from the sea, at that part of the river where it begins to branch off, they con- structed a bridge. Darius crossed the Bos- ^°° Valuable pTAX7//,v.]---Gronovius retains the reading of iraiai liKa, which is very absurd in itself, and ill agrees with the context : the true reading is iraai ItKct, that is, ten of each article presented. — See Casauboii on Atliena.His, and others.- --7'. M E L P O M E N E. 453 phorus, and marched through Thrace ; and ar- riving at the sources of the river Teams, he en- camped for the space of three days. XC. The people who inhabit its banks, affirm the waters of the Teams to be an excellent re- medy for various diseases, and particularly for ulcers, both in men and horses. Its sources are thirty-eight in number, issuing from the same rock, part of which are cold, and part wanu; they are at an equal distance from Herseum, a city near Perinthus^*", and from Apollonia on the Euxine, being a two days journey from both. The Teams flows into the Contadesdus, the Con- tadesdus into the Agrianis, the Agrianis into the Hebrus, the Hebrus into the sea, near the city iEnus. XCI. Darius arriving at the Teams, there fixed his camp : he was so delighted with this river, that he caused a column to be erected on the spot, with this inscription : " The sources of " the Teams afford the best and clearest waters " in the world : — In prosecuting an expedition " against Scythia, Darius son of Hystaspes, the ^°^ Perinthus.^ — I'his place was anciently known by the different names of INIygdonia, Heraclea, and Perintlius, — It is now called Pera. — T. 454 M E T. P O M E N E. " best and most amiable of men, sovereign of " Persia, and of all the continent, arrived here " with his forces." XCII. Leaving this place, Darius advanced towards another river, called Artisciis, which Hows through the country of the Odrysians '"". On his arrival here, he fixed upon one certain spot, on which he commanded every one of his soldiers to throw a stone as he passed : this was accordingly done ; and Darius, having thus raised an immense pile of stones, proceeded on his march. XCIII. Before he arrived at the Ister, he first of all subdued the Geta?, a people who pretend to immortality. The Thracians of Salmydessus, and they who live above Apollonia, and the city of ISIesambria, with those who are called Cyrmi- anians and Mypsa^ans, submitted themselves to Darius without resistance. The Getae obstinately defended themselves, but were soon reduced: 102 Odri/siuns.'] — Major llennell refers these Odrysians to Thrace and the quarter in the neighbourhood of Adrianople. Darius comes to them before he arrives among the Getas, who were seated to the south of the Danube. ^lention is made of them by Claudian in his Gigantomachia : Primus tcrrificuni Mavors non segnis in liostem Odrisios impellit ecjuos. Silius Italicus also speaks of Odrisius Boreas. — T. M E L r O M E N E. 455 these, of all the Thracians, arc the bravest and the most upright. XCIV. They believe themselves to be im- mortal"'^; and whenever any one dies, they are of opinion that he is removed to the presence of their god Zamolxis ^'^*, whom some believe to be 103 Thi'i/ believe th'tnsehrs to be iiuDiortaL] — Arrian calls these people Dacians. " The first exploits of Trajan," says Mr. Gibbon, " were against the Dacians, the most warlike of men, who dwelt beyond the Danube, and who, during the reign of Domitian, had insulted with impunity the majesty of Rome. To the strength and fierceness of Barbarians, they added a contempt for life, which was derived from a vain per- suasion of the immortality of the soul." The GetcE are represented by all the classic writers as the most daring and ferocious of mankind ; in the Latin language particularly, every harsh term has been made to apply to them : Nulla Getis toto gens est truculentior orbe, says Ovid. Hume speaks thus of their principles of belief, with respect to the soul's immortality : — " The Getes, commonly called immortal, from their steady belief of the soul's immortality, were genuine Theists and Unitarians. They affirmed Za- molxis, their deity, to be the only true God, and asserted the worship of all other nations to be addressed to mere fictions and chima3ras : but were their religious principles any more refined on account of these magnificent pretensions ?" It is very easy to see that both Hume and Gibbon are very angry with the poor Getae, for their belief in the immortality of the soul. — 2\ 101 Zamoh'is.J — Larcher, in conformity to Wesseling, pre- fers the reading of Zalmoxis. — In the Thracian tongue, Zal- mos means the skin of a bear ; and Porphyry, in the life of Pythagoras, observes, that the name of Zalmoxis was given him, because as soon as he was born he was covered with the skin o! that animal. 456 :\I E L P O M E N E. the same with Gcbeleizes. Oucc in every five years they choose one by lot, wlio is to be dis- patched as a messenger to Zamolxis, to make known to liim their several wants. The ceremony they observe on this occasion is this: — Three amongst them are appointed to hold in their hands, three javelins, whilst others seize by the feet and hands the person who is appointed to appear before Zamolxis ; they throw him up, so as to make him fall upon the javelins. If he dies in consequence, they imagine that the deity is propitious to them ; if not, they accuse the victim of being a wicked man. Having disgraced him, they proceed to the election of another, giving him, whilst yet alive, their commands. This same people, whenever it thunders or lightens, throw their weapons into the air, as if menacing their god ; and they seriously believe that there is no other deity. XCV. This Zamolxis, as I have been in- formed by those Greeks who inhabit the Helles- pont and the Euxine, was himself a man, and formerly lived at Samos, in the service of Pytha- goras, son of Mnesarchus ; having obtained his liberty, with considerable wealth, he returned to his country. Here he found the Thracians dis- tinguished equally by their jjrofligacy and their ignorance ; whilst he himself had been accus- tomed to the Ionian mode of life, and to man- MELPOMENE. 457 ners more polished than those of Thrace ; he had also been connected with Pythagoras, one of the most celebrated philosophers of Greece. He was therefore induced to build a large mansion, to which he invited the most eminent of his fellow- citizens : he took the opportunity of the festive hour to assure them, that neither himself, his guests, nor any of their descendants, should ever die, but should be removed to a place, where they were to remain in the perpetual enjoyment of every blessing. After saying this, and con- ducting himself accordingly, he constructed a sub- terranean edifice: when it was completed, he withdrew himself from the sight of his country- men, and resided for three years beneath the earth. — During this period, the Thracians re- gretted his loss, and lamented him as dead. In the fourth year he again appeared among them, and by this artifice, gave the appearance of pro- bability to what he had before asserted. XCVI. To this story of the subterraneous apartment, I do not give much credit, though I pretend not to dispute it; 1 am, however, very certain that Zalmoxis must have lived many years before Fythagoras : whether, therefore, he was a man, or the deity of the Getae, enough has been said concerning him. These Getae, using the ceremonies I have described, after submitting themselves to the Persians under Darius, followed his army. 458 M E I. P OMEN E. XCVII. Darius, wlicn he arrived at the Ister, passed the river uitli bis army ; he then com- manded the lonians to break down the bridge, and to follow him with all the men of their fleet. AVhen they were about to comply w ith his orders. Goes, son of Erxandcr, and leader of the Myti- Icnians, after requesting permission of the king to deliver his sentiments, addressed him as follows : " As you are going. Sir, to attack a country, " which, if report may be believed, is without " cities and entirely uncultivated, suffer the " bridge to continue as it is, under the care of " those who constructed it: — By means of this, " our return will be secured, whether w^e find " the Scythians, and succeed against them ac- " cording to our wishes, or whether they elude " our endeavours to discover them. I am not " at all apprehensive that the Scythians will over- " come us ; but I think that if we do not meet " them, we shall suffer from our ignorance of the " country. It may be said, perhaps, that I speak " from selfish considerations, and that I am de- " sirous of being left behind ; but my real motive " is a regard for your interest, whom at all events " I am determined to follow.'' With this counsel Darius was greatly delighted, and thus replied : — " jNIy Lesbian friend, when I " shall return safe and fortunate from this ex- MELPOMENE. 459 " pedition, 1 beg that I may see you, and I will " not fail amply to reward you, for your excellent " advice." XCVIII. After this speech, the king took a cord, upon, which he tied sixty knots ^ ^, then 105 Sixfi/ knots.'] — Larcher observes that this mode of nota- tion proves extreme stupidity on the part of the Persians* It is certain, that the science of arithmetic was first brought to perfection in Greece, but when or where it was first intro- duced is entirely uncertain ; I should be inclined to imagine, that some knowledge of numbers would be found in regions the most barbarous, and amongst human beings the most ignorant, had I not now before me an account of some Ameri- can nations, who have no term in their language to express a greater number than three, and even this they call by the un- couth and tedious name of patarrarorincoursac. In the Odys- sey, when it is said that Proteus will count his herd of sea- calves, the expression used is TreinirafTareTai, he 'will reckon them by Jives, which has been remarked as being probably a relick of a mode of counting practised in some remote age, when five was the greatest numeral. To count the fingers of one hand, was the first arithmetical effort: to carry on the account through the other hand, was a refinement, and required atten- tion and recollection. ]M. Goguet thinks, that in all numerical calculations peb- bles were first used : \pt](pi^o), to calculate, comes from ■iprjcpcg, a little stone, and the word calculation from calculi, pebbles. This is probably true; but betwten counting by the ii\e fingers and standing in need of pebbles to continue a calcu- * Larcher is severe upon the Persians, who were certainly not a stupid people. He possibly took this method to prevent the i)OSsibility of a mistake. 400 MELPOMENE. sendimr for the Ionian chiefs, he thus addressed them: — « Men of Ionia, I have thought proper to •• chanse mv original detennination concerning « this bridcre: do von take this cord, and ob- " serve what I require; from the time of my ■ -^-. — -: ;_Te V-een manv interrecire steps of un- rated mode "g by tbe _^_ - _ ^ ^^^: : . riits, in -jiey reckoned . _: :. by difltaem postures of the fin - £ers ; ix* nes: ^ counted oo the right hand, and so - — iioi3,asfaras 9000. In aHoawi to x.:_:^j J u « c^i=-i =>-.> i -^ Ncsror, A::"e ?- -^ '":--rr: <7f jf ro compotat annas. Sat. X. 249. and an old lady i; -.:... 7 Nicarchos, an Antholog^ poet, mho nnaA> Nesu; 4>G9. jVI E L P O M E N E. stupidly ignorant as not to know that this sinful habit of which we are speaking, is entirely voluntary and acquired. With regard to the effects of this vile propensity, tjiere can be no doubt that (if it were indulged inordinately) men would by slow degrees become inert, and wholly incapaci- tated for the rites of a married life : but these do not seem to be the effects intended by Herodotus, when he speaks of their manifest appearance to common observation. Travellers in Scythia were unlikely to discover the enarccs by any other than outward and visible symptoms of effeminacy ; so that I am at a loss to reconcile this circumstance of notoriety with the opinion of a secret practice which generally super- induces invisible effects. Probably too, this practice itself, if it really prevailed in Scythia, did not exist to that degree which is common in warmer countries; for example, in Italy and in Greece. But the idea which, in my mind, is most inconsistent with this explanation, is that of the disease being transmitted to the posterity of the delinquents. Now, if the debilitating consequences of this supposed vice, rendered the offenders unfit for marriage, they would, u fortiori^ be disabled from the power of propagating their own infirmities to posterity ! Who could be the descendants of the impotent cyaptci;, their crimes having been punished by an incurable imbecility? May we not thus derive, from the father of history himself, the means of refuting this opinion, although it has been supported by the learning of more numerous and more profound critics, than any other interpretation ? Let us now see whether some light may not be thrown on this inquiry, by Hippocrates, who was a countryman of He- rodotus, as well as his contemporary ; and who has expatiated pretty largely on this effeminate slate of the Scythians, in his book, TTepi (icpoiy, vccltiov, tottuv. From Hippocrates we learn that this disease was only ex- perienced by the opulent Scythians; that the notion of its divine original w^as altogether chimerical and superstitious ; that the infirmity was to be attributed to a natural cause, viz. to constant riding on horbeback, and exposure to very MELPOMENE. 4G3 inclement weather ; that its eflects were principally confined to the hips and lower parts of the body, including the genitals; and that the disorder consisted, not merely in the loss of viri- lity, but in chronical rheumatic dispositions (^Kic/j-ara) accovipa- nied uith lameness and effeminate habits. This is all I can collect from Hippocrates, apart from his theory. The learned Dr. liensler, indeed, supposes these Scythians had a discharge from the urethra, a malignant kind of gleet : but this does not appear either from the account of Herodotus or of Hippocrates, and is therefore only a conjectural idea. Upon the whole, I think these two ancient authors may he sufficiently reconciled, and the one may be adduced in illus- tration of the other. Both of them speak of the symptoms as evident and permanent, attacking those who had formerly been inured to hardships, and disposing them afterwards to a state of indolence or effeminacy. The natural constitution of the Scythians, in so cold a region, would unfit them, as Hippocrates observes, for connubial duties ; and, if the higher classes were chiefly afflicted with this infirmity, it might arise from something peculiar in their mode of Uving, and so be imagined by the common people to have been an hereditary evil, the fruits of sacrilegious profanations in the temple of Venus. END OF VOL. II. Printed by S. & R. BENTLEY, Dorset- Street, Salisbiiry.s(|uarf, Loiiiion. ^ THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara STACK COLLECTION THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. 000 272, 868 D Hii 1821 V.2 .^v**^ • >